382 



NATURE 



\March i6, 1876 



are the Inns of Court. From the date of the foun- 

 dation of the first college our knowledge becomes more 

 definite. The original statutes have been preserved, 

 and were published to the world by the University Com- 

 missioners about twenty years ago. The evidence, there- 

 fore, of the intentions of the early founders of fellowships 

 is abundant, and it is also decisively clear. It was, no 

 doubt, desired that the study of Theology should be 

 supreme, and ample provision was made for divine wor- 

 ship ; but it must be recollected that in those days 

 Theology included Law, and did not exclude Natural 

 Philosophy. But what the founders had foremost in 

 view, as might easily be shown by copious extracts from 

 their statutes, was not religion, or even education, but 

 advanced study. The few earliest colleges make no 

 reference at all to the endowment of teaching. Their 

 fellowships were established " for the support of indigent 

 scholars in the University of Oxford, who are bound to 

 study and make progress in the divers Sciences and 

 Faculties." The function of teaching was left to be per- 

 formed by the University, and all those who had taken 

 the higher degrees enjoyed the privilege, as they were 

 under the obligation, of giving instruction. " To study, 

 not to teach, was the business of the Fellows. The 

 founder of Queen's College has even expressly stated 

 that he intends his benefaction to relieve his Fellows 

 from the necessity of teaching." The full period of 

 study required for the degree of Doctor lasted for thirteen 

 or nineteen years, varying in the different faculties ; and 

 the fellowships were intended to support poor students 

 during this long season of probation. Nor must it be 

 supposed that Theology and the Classics were the only 

 subjects meant to be encouraged. Many of the founders 

 made provision for the study of medicine ; at New Col- 

 lege Astronomy is specially mentioned ; and William of 

 Waynfiete, in the statutes of Magdalen, expressly pre- 

 scribes Natural Philosophy as one of the three depart- 

 ments of knowledge which the Fellows were to cultivate. 

 Other instances of a similar nature might be quoted ; but 

 nothing further is required to prove what the colleges 

 themselves will scarcely admit, that the fellowships were 

 given not as prizes to stimulate clever boys, nor as sub- 

 sidies for academical teachers, but to promote mature 

 study. The appeal, therefore, to the intentions of the 

 founder does not lie in the mouth of the advocates of the 

 existing order of things, but is one of the strongest argu- 

 ments that can be used by those who support the endow- 

 ment of research, which turns out to be merely the resto- 

 ration of the old practice. 



MINERALS OF NEW SOUTH WALES 



Mines and Mineral Statistics of New South Walts. 

 Compiled under the direction of the Hon. John Lucas, 

 M.P. ; also " Remarks on the Sedimentary Formations 

 of New South Wales." By the Rev. W. B. Clarke, 

 M.A., F.G.S. (Sydney, 1875.) 



THE volume now before us is a companion to that we 

 reviewed recently in this journal on the minerals and 

 rocks of Victoria,* and like it has been called forth by the 

 necessity of cataloguing and describing the collection of 



* " Rocks and Minerals in the Melbourne Museum," Nature, vol. xiiL 

 p. 165. 



specimens exhibited at the Metropolitan Intercolonial 

 Exhibition held at Sydney in 1875, which consisted of rock- 

 specimens, fossils, samples of coal, ores of iron, and other 

 metals, collected by the Examiner of Coal-fields, the 

 Government Geologists, and furnished to a large extent 

 by the owners of mines, the whole being arranged by Mr. 

 C. S.Wilkinson, Government Geologist to the colony. The 

 volume also contains statistics of the minerals raised in 1874 

 and preceding years. These do not pretend to be more than 

 approximations, but they are sufficient to enable us to see 

 the strides this great colony is making in the development 

 of those mineral treasures which are almost lavishly 

 bestowed throughout the area already explored, and which 

 give promise of still wider distribution ; meanwhile, the 

 authorities seem fully alive to the importance of having 

 accurate returns. It is stated that " the arrangements for 

 the future are such as it is hoped will secure the collec- 

 tion, publication, and preservation of complete and 

 authentic returns, and no pains will be spared to render 

 our records of the past more complete than they are at 

 present." 



It may interest our readers, however, to be put in 

 possession of the latest returns, which are for the year 

 1874, and are as follows : — 



Total Value. 



Gold ^^30,656,246 



Coal , ... 6,565,328 



Tin 866,461 



Copper 807,476 



Oil-shale (Kerosine) ... 261,414 



Silver 77,2i6 



Iron 15,434 



Antimony 897 



Total ^39,220,472 



It is impossible to rise from a perusal of this volume 

 without the conviction that the resources in not only the 

 precious metals, but the more useful minerals— coal and 

 iron — are practically inexhaustible, and that being deve- 

 loped by British colonists are destined, or are at least 

 calculated, to produce a nation rivalling the mother- 

 country in manufacturing industry. We gather that the 

 colonists now fully perceive this themselves ; and for this 

 they are to no small degree indebted to the voluntary 

 labours of that veteran geologist, the Rev. W. B. Clarke, 

 who for a quarter of a century has been engaged in 

 exploring the interior of the continent and unfolding its 

 geological structure. A more detailed survey is now in 

 progress, which has been attended with highly encouraging 

 results ; and it would be well for intending settlers to 

 possess themselves of all the available information 

 afforded by the maps and reports of the geological sur- 

 veyors, as by this means they may become the happy 

 possessors of treasures lying below the surface. Mean- 

 while, sufficient is known to enable us to give a short 

 sketch of the physical features and geological structure of 

 this great colony. 



New South Wales is bounded on the south by the 

 Murray River — separating it from Victoria — and on the 

 north by a line generally corresponding to the 29th 

 parallel, by which it is separated from Queensland. 



The coast line extends from Cape Howe to Point 

 Danger, a distance of nearly 700 miles, with the Ports of 

 Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle, and the Clarence River 

 at intervals. At a distance from the coast-line, varying 



