5

E.—7

The attendance number of students during the past session was forty-eight, comprising fortythree regular students for the full course of the school, one student from the Thames School of Mines, holding a Government scholarship and studying for the B.Sc. degree, and four students who attended in special subjects only, viz.: two in general geology; one in assaying ; and one in assaying, metallurgy, and general geology. Of the forty-three regular students, thirty-four were previous ones returned for the finishing or further prosecution of their studies, whilst the remaining nine comprised fresh men. One of these latter attended for only the last half of the session in subjects which he could follow and understand, but in which he did not sit for examination, intending to take the subjects again next session. All these new students are desirous, so far as I could ascertain, of gaining the Associateship in Mining and the certificate of metallurgical chemist and assayer, being prepared to attend the school for four years for the purpose if required. Owing to illness, one of the older students (not reckoned in the before given number) was obliged, on medical advice, after a few weeks study, to cease attendance at the classes ; and towards the end of the session three other students became ill and lost a number of lectures. With the exception of the cases just mentioned, the attendance of the various classes by the students has been very satisfactory, and there have been much fewer failures in the examinations—twenty-six against forty-nine—than last year. In this connection I may mention the gratifying fact that the eleven students who failed in mining last year all passed a second examination held during the past mid-winter vacation. The eight new registered students passed through the first year's course of the mining division except four, who failed in mathematics, one who gave up this subject after a short attendance, and two who failed in mining geology and theoretical chemistry. Of the other thirty-four students, only a small number have strictly followed the curriculum prescribed in the calendar, and I am therefore not in the position to state exactly how many have passed respectively through the second and third year's courses, as they are prescribed. However, so much may be accepted as correct, that seven have finished their studies during the past session and will not return, whilst of the remaining twenty-seven students eleven can be placed as having passed the second, and another eleven the third year's courses, leaving five, who comprise students of from three to five years' standing, two going in for more than one certificate, and the other three requiring still to pass in one or two subjects they hitherto failed in. Of the seven students who are leaving the school six have successfully passed the examinations in all the prescribed subjects of the divisions they entered for. All the new students who entered for the first year's course, and one older one, who had not taken the class before, attended the evening class for " first aid," established by the St. John's Ambulance Association. The numerical attendance at all the classes and the results of the recent annual examinations are shown in the following table: —

Results of Examinations. Subjects. Attendance. Entered for Examination. 1st Class. 2nd Class. 3rd Class. Failures. General (University Classes) — Mathematics... Theoretical mechanics... Theoretical physics Practical physics Theoretical chemistry... Practical chemistry Theoretical biology Practical biology Special (School of Mines) — Mining, second course ... Mining geology General geology Palaeontology Mineralogy ... Petrography ... Quantitative chemical analysis ... General metallurgy Special metallurgy Practical assaying, first course ... Practical assaying, second course Blowpipe analysis ... Applied mechanics Surveying, first course... ' ... Surveying, second course Model-drawing Practical plane geometry Solid geometry Machine-drawing 10 13 21 16 13 11 1 1 26 9 12 1 12 12 13 16 . 18 12 11 10 9 10 13 8 8 7 8 10 13 21 16 11 11 1 1 25 8 12 1 II 11 1 1 1 1 3 1 4 1 4 6 7 4 1 16 3 5 1 4 6 3 6 5 6 5 5 3 2 2 4 7 12 7 4 7 1 1 7 3 3 5 5 5 4 4 4 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 16 18 12 11 10 9 10 13 8 8 7 8 5 4 5 6 1 5 2 2 5 8 7 7 3 5 2 5 6 2 4 2 1 1 "k Totals 72 101 97 26