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First Day.—Time : 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Subject B. — On the Timbering of Shafts, Adits, Main Drives or Levels, Passes, Stopes, and generally on the Systems of Timbering Mines, and also in Filling up Old Workings. 1. Give the dimensions of timber for a main adit in heavy ground— (a) if for a double line of rails, (b) for a single line of rails. State how you would make each set, and what provision you would make if the ground was liable to swell.. Give your reasons fully. 2. How far apart do you consider it most economical to have passes, and how would you timber them in heavy ground ? Give dimensions of passes, and size of timbers. Give your reasons full y3. State how you would timber a shaft with formed sets if the shaft was 12 ft. by 6 ft. in the clear ; give the dimensions of timber you would use ; and show by sketch how you would fit the timber, and the distance you would place the sets apart if the ground was heavy. 4. How would you secure the ground in stoping out a lode 6 ft. wide — (a) timbering the stope, (b) to secure the ground after being stoped out —if the ground was liable to crush, and the lode underlying at an angle of 40° ? 5. Describe how you would secure the timber in a main adit so as to prevent more than two sets of laths coming down in the event of a cap breaking ; also give your reasons why all empty spaces should be filled up on the top of the laths. Subject D.— Tapping Water in Mines. 1. What precaution would you take if you were constructing a drive to connect with old workings where it was known there was a lodgment of water? 2. Describe fully how you would construct a dam in a drive in solid rock to keep water back if it had to rise 100 ft. above the level of the drive, and what material you would use. 3. In approaching a place where there was a lodgment of water by a drive or adit, and the ground was of a loose character, how would you secure it to render operations being carried on with safety ? Describe how you would secure the timber in a drive before tapping the water.

Second Day.—Time : 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Subject E.— On Blasting and the Use of Explosives. 1. What explosives do you consider the best to use in cross-cutting in hard rock? Give your reasons fully. 2. What is the relative strength of dynamite, rackarock, compressed powder, and blastinggelatine in comparison with the ordinary blasting-powder ? 3. What method would you use to thaw dynamite when in a frozen condition, and at what temperature does it freeze ? 4. What explosive do you consider the best to use in wet and hard ground? Give your reasons fully. 5. If a shot were to miss fire, what precautions would you take, and how would you proceed to disintegrate the rock that the miss-charge was in ? Subject F.— A Knowledge of Arithmetic and the Method of keeping Accounts. 1. If 12 men could earn £180 by working 10 hours a day, how many men could earn £300 by working 8 hours a day ? 2. If a man took 25 days to do a piece of work, and received £2 Bs. a week of 48 hours, what would the work cost ? 3. If repairs to a shaft took 3 men 35 days, and cost £44, how long would it take 7 men to do it ; and what would be the difference in the cost if the men received Bs. 6d. a day ? 4. If 150 tons of ore assaying 2oz. 4 dwt. 12 gr. per ton only yielded 280 oz. 7 dwt. by battery treatment, what is the percentage-recovery ? 5. If a lode were 4 ft. 2 in. at one end, and gradually tapered till it was Ift. 10 in. at a distance of 88ft., being also 42 ft. high, how many cubic yards would it contain? Subject G.— A Knowledge of Part VI. of " The Mining Act, 1891." Oral.

Questions used in Examination of Battery Superintendents for Certificates. (" The Mining Act Amendment Act, 1894.") First Day.—Time : 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. [The candidates will not be allowed any books other than logarithm tables during the time they are sitting for examination. They must attempt to answer every question, and all calculations must be shown in detail.] Subject A.— The Different Modes of Reducing and Pulverising Ores. 1. State what experience you have had in ore-crushing plants. Give the name of the company you were employed by, and the period and date you have been so employed. 2. Describe the difference between a Blake-Marsden ore-crusher and a Gates's crusher, and the action of each.