Matrix rings are prominent in abstract algebra. In this paper we give an overview of the theory of matrix near-rings. A near-ring differs from a ring in that it does not need to be abelian and one of the distributive laws does not hold in general. We introduce two ways in which matrix near-rings can be defined and discuss the structure of each. One is as given by Beildeman and the other is as defined by Meldrum. Beildeman defined his matrix near-rings as normal arrays under the operation of matrix multiplication and addition. He showed that we have a matrix near-ring over a near-ring if, and only if, it is a ring. In this case it is not possible to obtain a matrix near-ring from a proper near-ring. Later, in 1986, Meldrum and van der Walt defined matrix near-rings over a near-ring as mappings from the direct sum of n copies of the additive group of the near-ring to itself. In this case it can be shown that a proper near-ring is obtained. We prove several properties, introduce some special matrices and show that a matrix notation can be introduced to make calculations easier, provided that n is small.
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