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Governing Body. —At the annual meeting the following committee were elected for the current year: President, Mr. W. Laving; Hon. Secretary, Mr. N. Lawn; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. T. H. Lee; members of committee, Messrs. G. Hufton, J. S. Matthews, Eev. T. Pinfold, and T. Watson. In conclusion, I must thank the committee for the valuable assistance they have given me in carrying on the work of the school, and I trust that the institution will continue to improve, and show some practical results at the end of the present year. OTAGO SCHOOL OP MINES. The attendance at this school has still further increased during the year 1896. The new plant for treatment of ore has been completed, and a number of parcels of quartz were crushed and treated by amalgamation or by the cyanide process. The following is the report of Professor George H. F. Ulrich, the Director of the school, on the progress .made during the past year, the personal notice of students and list of donations to the Mining Museum being omitted : — I have the honour to submit the following report regarding the attendance, work, and results of annual examinations of the School of Mines during the past session (1896), together with remarks on the practical teaching facilities, and on other points affecting the future progress of the school. The attendance number of students during the past session was thirty-eight, classed as thirtytwo regular students for the full course and six occasional ones for special subjects—principally assaying—only. Of the thirty-two regular students, nineteen were old ones returned for the completion or further prosecution of their studies (as detailed further on), whilst the other thirteen comprised new entries, including one student who had the previous session attended as an occasional one. Ten of the new students entered for the first year's course of the mining division, though several with the intention of going through four years' study, in order to enable them to gain in addition to the diploma of associate in mining that of associate in geology or the certificate of metallurgical chemist and assayer. Two students who had some years before gone through the first year's course of the mining division returned for the completion of their studies, and the thirteenth new student—being the holder of one of the three scholarships in mining established by the Hon. the Minister of Mines (Mr. Cadman), and tenable at the Otago University —entered for the study of the subjects of the geological division with the aim of gaining the B.Sc. degree in geology in the University of New Zealand. As the attendance number of students during the session of 1895 was twenty-seven, of whom only nineteen returned, the loss of eight is explained by three occasional students and of two who had the year before entered as regular students not returning, whilst the other three—viz., John Watt, Ernest Edwards, and John Orkney —had finished their studies and passed the prescribed examinations, as stated in my last year's report. After producing certificates of twelve months' engagement in practical work in mines they have since each been granted the diploma of associate in mining, and, in addition, John Watt and John Orkney the diploma of associate in metallurgy, and Ernest Edwards the certificate of metallurgical chemist and assayer, to which they were entitled. The attendance of the various classes by the thirty-two regular students was very satisfactory, only a small number having missed any lectures, and those mostly on account of illness. The ten new students passed through the first year's course with the exception of five—two who did not attend mathematics, one who failed in this subject, one who failed in mining geology, and one who failed in theoretical chemistry. Thirteen students passed through the second year's course of the mining division, save two who did not attend mineralogy —one who failed and one who did not sit for the examination in this subject. Three others did not take the classes in theoretical and practical physics, but as these, as well as the others who missed classes, have the intention of staying four years they can make up the deficiencies during next session. Eight students —some of four years' and one of three years' standing —finished their studies during the past session, and are leaving the school, having successfully passed the examinations in all the subjects prescribed for several of the divisions. With few exceptions, all these students took advantage of learning by the practical instruction and example of Mr. Fitzgerald, battery-work and gold-extraction by amalgamation and the cyanide process in working regularly four-hour shifts alternately from the time the testing of samples for the public was started. In compliance with applications, Mr. Fitzgerald arranged evening-classes in assaying, which were attended by six occasional students, five of whom came regularly all through the session, whilst the sixth stopped away after about three months' work. As the afternoon classes for the sixteen regular students in the first and second courses of assaying (which need at least three hours each for three afternoons per week, and necessarily require to be held together for want of other free time) were rather crowded, and the five available smelting furnaces proved quite inadequate for continuous steady working of these students, two of them, whose other lectures fortunately permitted it, attended the evening classes also, much to their own convenience and that of the other students of the afternoon classes. All the new students (eleven) who entered for the first year's course attended the evening class established by the St. John Ambulance Association, and were successful in passing the examination, and thereby gaining certificates of first aid as required by the regulations. On considering that the lecture-hours of the first year's course on any day of the week leave the hour free at which the ambulance class is generally held (which is not the case in the second and third year's courses), it was thought advisable to make attendance at that class part of the first year's course for the future, and prescribe it in the calendar.