E.—7

22

Staff.- —The staff remains as before except that Mr. D. C. M. Day has been replaced by Miss W. Oldham, 8.D.5., as junior clinical demonstrator. This gives a proportion of staff to students of something less than one to twenty. As I have indicated in previous reports, the American standard of one to eight should be aimed at. B.D.S. Course.—Owing to the new regulations by the General Medical Council it has been necessary to remodel and somewhat lengthen this course. The Dental Faculty, Professorial Board, and Board of Studies spent considerable time in discussing details of the necessary changes involved. Unfortunately, when these recommendations went forward to the Senate certain changes were made which rendered the whole scheme impossible. I desire here to protest against changes being made in a professional course by a body which contains no member of the profession concerned. Dental Legislation.—During the past year a Bill was introduced into Parliament to extend for a further four years the privilege of a back-door entrance to dentistry to some thirty-odd candidates who had failed to pass at the two previous examinations for this purpose. The Bill was strenuously opposed by the University of Otago and by the Dental Association, and was eventually dropped. I think it would have been fitting if the Senate of the University of New Zealand had also entered a protest. It surely is not right that the University of New Zealand should be asked to conduct back-door examinations to a profession which already has two standards of admission (the degree and certificate), especially as the proposed examinations could be taken one subject at a time spread over a period of four years, examinations to be held twice yearly. School of Mines. (James Park, Dean). During the winter session of 1924 the classes at the School of Mines were attended by sixty-ssven students, of whom sixteen were preparing for the associateship or for the 8.8. degree of the University of New Zealand. Of the remainder, twelve took the classes in geology as prescribed for the B.A. or B.Sc. degree, and twenty-two the course in dental metallurgy as for the B.D.S. degree. Four casuals attended the lectures and field classes in surveying and practical astronomy, and two the lectures in strength of materials. At the graduation ceremony held last July. New Zealand University diplomas were presented to three candidates who at the November (1923) degree examinations passed the Final Professional Examination for the B.E. (Mining). In addition to the usual routine work of the school, 127 samples of rocks and minerals forwarded by prospectors were examined and reported on by the Director free of charge ; and sixty-five samples of ore, coal, &c., were assayed by the Professor of Metallurgy at schedule rates. Faculty of Home Science. (A. G. Strong, Dean). Students. —Students of 1924 : There were sixty-five students on the roll of the home-science department in 1924. Of these, twenty-five attended classes leading to the degree of B.Sc., and forty attended the diploma classes. Of the nineteen students leaving the department, nine have qualified for the diploma in home science and five have been dropped. The five who will secure the B.Sc. degree are the last of those who entered what was nominally a three-year degree course, and all have required four or more years to complete it. Past students : A study of the home-science records has been made with a view to discovering the cause for so many failures among our students. It becomes very evident that the fault lies in their lack of thorough preparation for the science courses of the University. Either we must get better qualified students entering, or the science courses will have to be modified if students arc to complete the course in the time allotted. Extension Work. — Home science in other countries recognizes the responsibility to the women of the community who are the mothers of the next generation. There is already such a fund of knowledge proven by scientific research that if even a small part of it could be put into practice the health and welfare of humanity would be very greatly improved. Teachers of home science are trying to bridge the gap between the science laboratory and the home ; but their time is taken up with class-room teaching of young girls. What is wanted is an extension worker whose time may be given to public lectures, demonstrations, and organization of outside study classes among women, both in the city and the country. Bulletins dealing with home problems should be published and distributed among such women. We have made a beginning of extension work with our Home Economics Association. We are now joining up internationally with this movement. We also formed a Junior Home Economics Group this year, to whom lectures were given by Dr. Storms and Miss McGill upon the " Science and art of dress." The housing problem is one wherein home science should contribute her share of help for its solution. Funds are spent for putting up working-men's cottages built upon plans that are crude and inconvenient. The maternity mortality of the Dominion is closely associated with poor and inadequate housing and wrong methods of housekeeping. The home-science department earnestly urges the construction of a model cottage which may serve to illustrate healthful and sanitary living, artistic, economic, and convenient arrangement, and in which home-science students may demonstrate the easiest and most efficient ways of housekeeping. Here, too, the experience of child care should be obtained. Such practice houses are commonly found in connection with home-science departments in other countries, and one is urgently needed at Otago if our students are to be prepared to teach others. It is hoped that such a cottage may be built for the Exhibition; but it should be of such a nature as to remain for permanent use.