61

A.—2

No. 78. (Circular.) Sib, — Downing Street, 14th August, 1886. I have the honour to transmit to you, for the consideration of your Government, an extract from a letter from the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, suggesting the desirability of enacting laws in the several colonies for the registration of their publications. 2. For convenience of reference I annex copy of a Ceylon ordinance (No. 1 of 1885), the enactment of which gave rise to this suggestion. You will perceive that this ordinance provides not only for the registration of all books printed in Ceylon, but also for the preservation of such books, by ordering the presentation to the Government of three copies of every publication. 8. If a similar law were passed in the colony under your administration I should be glad to receive copies of periodical instalments of the catalogue of registered books, as provided in section 6 of the Ceylon ordinance, and should also be obliged if your Government could meet the wishes of the British Museum authorities by sending two copies of such instalments direct to that department. 4. If the Legislature of the colony should think fit to include in any law passed for the registration of books a provision, similar to that of the Ceylon law, for the preservation of one or more copies of every registered publication, I do not desire that one of the copies should be transmitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, as the library of this department would be unable to receive such books from all the colonies, but if any can be sent to England I would request that they should be transmitted direct to the British Museum, where they would be found more useful. I have, &c, EDWABD STANHOPE. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

Enclosure. Extract from a Letter from tho British Museum to the Colonial Office, dated the 10th June, 1886. Eeferring to your Lordship's offer to represent to colonies other than those named in my letter of the 12th ultimo the desirability of enacting a law for the registration of their publications, I have the honour to state, on the part of the Trustees, that the Keeper of the Department of Printed Books represents the great difficulty he finds in forming a collection of colonial books from the absence of such a system of registration in the colonies generally (in Canada and Newfoundland, the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, New Zealand, and Australia); and they would venture to recommend the suggestion to the colonial Governments of the advantages to literature generally, and especially to students in the Mother-country, w rhich might bo expected from their adoption of the system of registration. The Trustees also hope that steps may be taken to extend this system, as far as practicable, to those colonies of which the affairs are more directly administered by the Colonial Office.

No. 79. (New Zealand, No. Gl.) Sib,— Downing Street, 16th August, 1886. With reference to my predecessor's Despatch No. 40, of the 17th of June, and to previous correspondence respecting the proposed annexation of the Kermadec Islands, I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information of your Government, an extract of a letter from the Commander-in-Chief on the Australian station dated the 14th of June, reporting that the "Diamond" would shortly proclaim the Queen's sovereignty in the group. I have, &c, EDWARD STANHOPE. Governor Sir W. E. D. Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.8., &c.

No. 40.

, Enclosure. Extract from General Letter of H.M.S. " Nelson," dated at Sydney, 14th June, 1886, No. 283. . The " Diamond " was at Samoa on the 22nd May, and would call at Fiji about the middle of June. I have sent orders to Captain Clayton (which should arrive there on the 22nd June) to revisit