1919.] 
University and Scientific News. 
151 
UNIVERSITY AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Mining Education in New Zealand. 
The recently published Calendar of the University of Otago shows that an 
extensive revision has been made of the courses of study for the Associate- 
ship of the Otago University School of Mines. While there is still retained 
the separation of the Associateship into the three divisions of Mining, 
Metallurgy, and Geology respectively, the period of study for each of these 
has been lengthened from three to four years, of which the first three years 
of study are common to all three divisions and specialization occurs in the 
fourth. By this means a greater amount of general and especially geological 
training is given to students of all divisions, while additional advanced 
courses have been introduced in mining, metallurgy, and workshop prac¬ 
tice. By this means a broader basis of education, both theoretical and 
practical, will be obtained than was possible when specialization began 
somewhat earlier and the whole course was shorter. 
The following is the outline of the courses of study :— 
First year : Chemistry, physics, mathematics, geology, and draw¬ 
ing I. (Thirty-two hours per week class-work.) 
Second year : Mineralogy, determinative mineral analysis, mining 
geology and mining I, ore-dressing, surveying I, theoretical 
mechanics, and applied mechanics I. (Twenty-six hours per 
week class-work.) 
Third year : Mining II, applied mechanics II, metallurgy I, assay¬ 
ing I, petrology I, physical geology II (with practical instruction 
in geological surveying), and drawing II. (Twenty-five hours per 
week class-work.) 
Fourth year : All students take the following subjects—Surveying II, 
assaying II, metallurgy II, petrology II, drawing III, toge¬ 
ther with advanced mining and workshop practice, advanced 
metallurgy and workshop practice, or advanced stratigraphical 
geology and palaeontology, according to the division in which 
the student specializes. (A total of twenty-six hours per week 
class-work.) 
Courses of a few lectures each in ambulance, first aid, and the physiology 
of respiration are introduced into the course where convenient. 
The new course, workshop practice, is defined as—Testing of materials 
such as cement, timber, steel rods, &c. ; testing of coal-mine gas, and 
measurement of the flow of water ; practice in the use of engines, car¬ 
penters’ and blacksmiths’ tools, and the construction of models associated 
with mining and metallurgy ; the electrical testing of leads, lighting cir¬ 
cuits, exploders, detonators ; notes on electric-power transmission, switch¬ 
boards, transformers, &c. ; practice in wiring, storage-battery utility. 
In addition to the class-work, all students must spend twelve months 
in practical work, the length of the vacation being arranged so as to permit 
the student completing this work by the time the class-work is finished. 
All students must spend at least four months in underground mining-work, 
while an additional eight months must be spent in mining, metallurgical 
work, or in geological surveying, and a thesis prepared descriptive of some 
