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I have much pleasure in informing Your Excellency that a few days ago Alexander Gordon Macdonald, A.0.5.M., 8.E., was awarded the first scholarship—the Research—to cover the brown coals of Otago, in relation to their geological ocurrence, chemical and physical characters, mining and market conditions, present uses and economic possibilities. Joshua Strange Williams, Chancellor.

Professorial Board: Report op the Chairman (Professor Thomas Gilray, M.A., F.R.S.E.). 1 have the honour of submitting a general report on the work of the University during the academical year that ended on the 31st March, 1908. Statistics of Attendance .—The Registrar has supplied the following statistics for session 1907: Number of students in arts and science, 223; in medicine, 86; in dentistry, 2; in mining, 12: total (males 207, females 116), 323. Matriculated students—males, 173; females, 107: total, 280. Non-matriculated students—males, 34; females, 9: total, 43. Note: As there is a discrepancy between the number of students in the Mining School given by the Registrar and the number given by Professor Park, the Director of the School, in his annual report, I may explain that some of our art students attend the geology class. Geology, in addition to being a mining subject, may also be taken as a subject for 8.A., B.Sc, M.A., and M.Sc, in connection with the New Zealand University degree examinations. Changes in the Teaching Staff. —On the 31st March, 1908, Professor Sale retired from the active discharge of his duties as Professor of Classics —an appointment he had held since 1870, the year in which the work of the University of Otago was formally begun, it having been founded in the previous year. Professor Sale's retirement is, I believe, the greatest loss the University has sustained since its foundation. He was educated at Rugby School and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1854 with first-class honours in classics and secondclass honours in mathematics. In 1856 he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, the most famous of the Cambridge colleges; and in 1857 he was appointed Lecturer on Classics. Professor Sale filled the Chair of Classics in Otago University with great credit and distinction, and he has also rendered other services of the highest value to the institution. His profound classical learning, his sagacity in counsel, his strength of character, his unflinching courage, his transparent honesty, and his fidelity to his colleagues and other friends make him a singularly memorable figure in the academic history of New Zealand; and his colleagues regard him with feelings of the greatest esteem and deepest affection, and trust he may be long spared to enjoy his well-earned rest. In addition to discharging his duties as a member of the teaching staff with the highest efficiency, Profesor Sale acted as Chairman of the Professorial Board from 1895 to 1898, as a member of the University Council from 1894 to 1908, and as a member of the Senate of New Zealand University from 1878 to 1908, a body of which he was one of the most influential members. In the admirable speech delivered by Dr. Shand on the 30th October, 1907, at the valedictory presentation to Professor Sale, he pointed out that it is to Professor Sale that we owe what may be called the distinctive feature of New Zealand University education —namely, the appointment of British experts in the various subjects as examiners and the sending of the students' examination-papers to Britain. Whatever thoughtless cavillers may say, this feature of our system gives New Zealand University degrees a value that no other colonial degrees possess—a value similar to that of the University of London, which have always enjoyed a very high reputation. When the history of university education in New Zealand is written, no name will occupy a more honourable position in the record than that of Professor Sale. The work of the Chair of Classics is at present shared by two gentlemen appointed by the University Council —Mr. Tom Dagger Adams, M.A., Lecturer on Latin; and Mr. James Dunbar, Lecturer on Greek. Both of these gentlemen have a high reputation as scholars and teachers, and the very best results are expected from their work. Last September Dr. Pickerill arrived, and at once entered on his duties as Director of the Dental School. Subsequently, at a meeting of the University Council held on the 7th October, it was resolved, on the recommendation of the Dental Committee, " That Dr. Pickerill should be designated Professor of Dentistry, and also Director of the Dental School." Elementary Class in Mathematics. —As it has been felt for some time that an elementary class in mathematics for students not sufficiently advanced to undertake the whole B.A. work within the limits of a single session is a desideratum in our curriculum, such a class was proposed last session by the Professorial Board, and was sanctioned by the University Council; and it now daily meets at 5 p.m. This class, which counts for keeping terms, is called the " Junior Class," the class doing the whole work for 15.A. being now called the " Senior Class " —not the " Junior," as formerly. General Statement of Academic Results. —lt gives me great pleasure to inform the Council that session 1907 is one of the most successful of the thirty-seven sessions during which the University has been in existence. As a result of the Arts and Science Examinations held by the Home examiners in November, 1907, and of the Examination in Medicine held in January, 1908, by examiners resident in New Zealand, 15 of our students have taken the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 6 have taken the degree of Bachelor of 'Science, 2 have taken the degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Mining, 1 has taken the degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Metallurgy, 9 have taken the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, 9 have taken the degree of Master of Arts with honours, 2 have taken the' degree of Master of Science and honours in science, 4 have taken the pass degree of Master of Science, and 1 has taken the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Two of our students have won Senior Scholarships—the John Tinline Scholarship has been awarded to an Otago student (William Tremere Foster); and the 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship has been awarded to an Otago student (Alexander Moncrieff Finlayson) for the fifth time since it was founded.