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given a good account of themselves. Besides these, four students have passed the prescribed Government examination for engine-drivers' certificates. Students brought up in a mining community are always the most apt of pupils. Most of them have been engaged in practical battery- and mine-work from their youth. They are consequently already well acquainted with all the details and mechanical parts of a battery, the construction and timbering of shafts, drives, &c, and the working parts of pumping and winding machinery. When they begin their underground surveys they are already familiar with their surroundings, and all possess a knowledge of the phraseology of milling and mining. From their own personal experience of the behaviour of reefs in the mines, they are quick to perceive and ready to apply the laws relating to the recovery of lost lodes. The skill with which the intelligent miner-student handles the theodolite and executes his plans, together with his quickness to master the solution of triangles and trigonometrical calculations of areas, are matters that still surprise me. The most notable event in connection with our experimental battery has been the erection of a most complete plant for the treatment of ores by the McArthur-Forrest cyanide process. The manager of the Cassel Company has written in terms of approbation concerning its design and construction. It will prove of great service to the public and an inestimable boon to our metallurgical students, who will now be able to obtain a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge of the working details of the process before leaving the school. The acute depression which has prevailed in mining at the Thames during the past two years, and the large number of students who have completed their course of study and graduated, have at last affected the attendance at the school. The average number of .registered students for 1892-93 was fifty-two, and for the past year forty. The number of students attending the different classes in the different terms are given in the following tabulated form : —

Table of Attendance for Year ending 31st March, 1894.

At the beginning of the present year the Committee of the school decided to grant the diploma of mining engineer. Hitherto the only certificates issued by the school have been class certificates of three grades based on the results of the annual examinations. Students who wish to graduate for the diploma of mining engineer will be required to possess a first-class certificate as a mine-manager, gained by examination under the regulations of" The Mines Act, 1891," or " The Coal-mines Act, 1891," and, after a further period of study extending over not less than one year, will be required to pass a satisfactory examination in general and mining geology, mineralogy, mathematics, hydraulics, land-surveying up to requirements of Survey Department, engineering surveying, mechanical drawing, designing and construction, and practical astronomy with a view of determining meridian, latitude, and time. Five passed mine-managers have already commenced the necessary studies with me, and up to the present time very satisfactory progress has been made. The instruction in practical astronomy has so far been confined to class-lectures, but as soon as our new transit-theodolite, now some time ordered from London, arrives, individual instruction will be given in the field

1893. 1894. Name of Class. First Term. Second Term. Third Term. First Term. Registered Students. 'ractical assaying 'ractical chemistry and laboratory practice 'heoretical chemistry... Metallurgy of gold and silver ... Mineralogy and blowpipe determination... S-eneral and mining geology lining, applied mechanics, hydraulics ... jand- and mine- surveying Engineering surveying 'ractical astronomy ... Mechanical drawing ... Mathematics • )esigning and construction 26 23 23 7 7 13 15 29 21 21 8 8 14 14 27 17 17 29 9 9 L4 17 15 9 9 7 7 10 16 5 5 2 8 7 9 5 5 1(3 Saturday Science Lectures. 61 60 Elementary mechanics Sound, light, and heat Electricity and magnetism Experimental chemistry 54 37 Total attendance at all classes 184 170 214 137 Eegistered students... ■!3 42 43 33 Total individual students 104 92 97 70