June 3, 1887.] 



SCIENCJEJ. 



529 



of misery arising out of tlieir commercial rela- 

 tions. In this colony the majority of the manu- 

 facturers are already heavily protected by the 

 customs duties — amounting in most cases to 

 about sixteen per cent ad valorem — which it has 

 been found necessary to levy for revenue pur- 

 poses. Without such duties, many of the manu- 

 factures now established, notably those of cloth, 

 blankets, wood ware, etc., would be quite unable 

 to exist. But those directly interested are by no 

 means satisfied with the measure of protection 

 already enjoyed, and are clamoring for more. 

 The coming parliamentary session will probably 

 be marked by a determined attempt to commit 

 New Zealand to a protectionist policy. 



The university colleges, of which three are now 

 well established at Dunedin, Christchurch, and 

 Auckland, with a fourth about to be started in 

 Wellington, open their sessions for the year either 

 this or next month. The Canterbury (Christ- 

 church) and Auckland colleges hold two sessions 

 of a little over three months each, with a break of 

 a month between ; while the University of Otago 

 (Dunedin) has only one six-months' session, the 

 classes adjourning for a fortnight's necessary rest 

 in the middle. The idea in the latter, which is 

 founded on the lines of the Scotch universities, 

 was to enable the students to teach six months, and 

 study six months. It is found that but few can 

 avail themselves of this plan, and an attempt has 

 recently been made to assimilate all the colleges 

 to one plan ; but for the present this has not met 

 with success. The present premier, who is also 

 minister of education, Sir Robert Stout, is endeav- 

 oring to specialize the work of the different col- 

 leges, in order to prevent too much rivalry and 

 clashing of interests. Thus Otago already pos- 

 sesses a comiDlete faculty of medicine with a full 

 staff of professors and lecturers, and is authorized 

 to grant degrees of M.B. and CM. Last session 

 there were medical students, and the number is 

 increasing yearly. As the vmiversity of Edin- 

 burgh accepts work done in Dunedin as equiva- 

 lent to that done by their own extra-mural 

 teachers, it has hitherto been usual for the Otago 

 students to take two or three years' study here, 

 and then go to Edinburgh for their degree. Now, 

 however, that the medical staff is complete, the 

 number who graduate here will steadily increase. 



Otago also j)ossesses a school of mines in con- 

 nection with her university ; but this Sir R. Stout 

 wishes to transfer to Christchurch, which already 

 has in Sir Julius von Haast of the Canterbury 

 museum, and Prof. F. W. Hvitton, two men wide- 

 ly known for their geological researches. 



The University of New Zealand, to which these 

 colleges and a few of the larger secondary schools 



are affiliated, is a somewhat anomalous body. It 

 consists of a senate and convocation, endowed 

 with powers to grant degrees and to manage their 

 own internal affairs, and sujDported by a small 

 annual grant from the government. But like the 

 University of London, whose example it intended 

 to follow, it has no teaching staff in direct con- 

 nection with it, and, to suit the geographical con- 

 ditions of the country, it is peripatetic, holding 

 its annual session in one or other of the larger 

 towns. Its headquarters for the time being will 

 always be where its chancellor resides ; and as 

 that honorable position is held at present by Dr. 

 Hector, the chief scientific adviser of the govern- 

 ment, the seat of administration is in Wellington. 



A vigorous effort has been put forth for the last 

 two years to establish schools of mines in the 

 principal mining-centres of the colony. Dr. J. 

 G. Black, professor of chemistry in Otago univer- 

 sity, is the leading spirit in this movement, which 

 has been warmly supported by the government. 

 Whether the attempt to popularize chemistry is 

 altogether a wise one, in the way at any rate in 

 which it has been done here, is a matter of opin- 

 ion. Mere test-tubing, taught in a dozen lessons,, 

 will not convert a rough gold-miner into an ex- 

 pert mineralogist, yet this is too much the kind 

 of thing which has been resorted to. In every 

 mining-centre, large or small, testing-classes have 

 been started, where hundreds of novices, destitute 

 of the most elementary knowledge of chemical 

 principles, are introduced to the art of the quali- 

 tative analysis of minerals. Whatever they 

 learn, they don't get any scientific training. It is 

 impossible, however, to deny that Dr. Black has 

 exhibited immense enthusiasm and zeal in carry- 

 ing out his plans ; and if these result, as he hopes 

 they will, in the ultimate establishment of properly 

 equipped schools of mining, he will have achieved 

 a noble work, in the success of which the earlier 

 crude efforts will be forgotten. 



There is immense room for improvement in 

 methods of alluvial mining, and especially in the 

 utilization of the fine gold of which so much is 

 now lost. In the Laurence district of Otago, the 

 famous Blue Spur cement, after being crushed 

 and treated for gold, has been repeatedly washed ; 

 yet at the present day a considerable number of 

 Chinese miners are still engaged turning it over 

 and washing it, probably for the tenth time, and 

 they make from eight to ten shillings a day, or 

 more, at it. 



An attempt to open up the West Coast sounds 

 country this last summer has not been very suc- 

 cessful. The dense forest vegetation and the 

 generally inaccessible nature of the country have 

 proved such difficulties that prospecting has been 



