7

H.—22,

Donations. —The following are some of the donations of the year : Rev. J. H. L. Waterhouse, five books in the New Britain dialect; Rev. F. R. Isom, sixty books in Solomon Islands and New Hebrides dialects; Rev. W. Flierl, fifteen books in the New Guinea dialect; E. N. Hogben, MS. biography of Sir J. yon Haast, by G. Hogben; E. G. Pilcher, sets of Australian Philatelist and Australian Journal of Philately, New Zealand Stamp Journal, and many New Zealand pamphlets and photos ; J. A. Ferguson, privately printed " Bibliography of Now Hebrides," part 2 ; J. H. L. Wilson, autograph copy of first edition of R. L. Stevenson's "An Inland Voyage " ; W. West Knowlcs, illustrations to Wakefield's " Adventures in New Zealand," &c. ; Maggs Bros., bound copies of thesir catalogues of 1921 ; L. H. Victory, " Looms of Orchill," and other poems ; Hon. Sir Frederick Chapman, Works of Jeremy Bentnam (twenty-three volumes, 1791-1830) ; M. Crompton Smith, Maunsell's " New Zealand Grammar," and other New Zealand books formerly belonging to S. Percy Smith ; Hon. W. H. Triggs, numbers of Canterbury Punch, and othc-.r books ; D. C. Bates, " Entomology in Sport," " Bibliomania in the Middle Ages " ; Mrs. Ralston, volume of original drawings in pencil, ink, or wash, with engravings of many by J. L. and W. Ralston, English illustrators ; J. McDonald, original drawings of Hori Kingi; H. S. Dottmann, " Jus Potandi oder Becht-Rocht," " Petri Godofredi " ; Angus and Robertson, Oken's " Botany," illustrations ; &c. The thanks of the Government are due to these and to other donors. Among the donations special attention might be drawn to the copy of Stevenson's " Inland Voyage," which is now very valuable even without the autograph ; and to the set of Bentham's works, which belonged to the father of Judge Chapman, a personal friend of Bentham, intimately connected with him and his writings. The set of New Guinea dialect publications presented by the Rev. Flierl, too, wore obtained through German correspondence with the German Missionary Society. The copy of Maunsell's " Grammar " is a valuable one : it was Maunsell's own, and is interleaved, and contains a great many notes and emendations. Attention, too, should be drawn to the volume of drawings by the brothers Ralston. These artists were illustrators in Punch and other English periodicals, and their sketches are typical of society and middle-class life of the " eighties " and " nineties." A note might be made of one donation that does not come within the year —an electrotype copy of the Keats portrait lately sent from New Zealand to Sir Sydney Colvin. This portrait was drawn in 1819 by R. Browne, who subsequently came to New Zealand, settling at New Plymouth, where he died. His granddaughter, Mrs. Osborne, sent the portrait Home, and it was she who, on being approached, sent the copy to the library. Through notification of the gift in the Press, copies of other sketches by It. Browne have come to hand. The large number of books in the New Hebrides anel Solomon Islands dialects were also obtained through correspondence, and are a valuable addition to the South Sea dialect library, which is one of the best in. existence. Historical Records. —A number of. historically valuable documents, including despatches, journals, <fee, have been added to those already in the library, but it has not been possible to elo anything towards arranging or cataloguing these. Amongst the documents received may be mentioned — Original proclamation of Sir George Grey constituting the various Provincial Councils and Provincial Districts in 1853 ; official letter-books, Wanganui Resident Magistrate's Court, 1848-53, 1863-65 ; Warrants appointing Justices, 1848-53 ; early despatches ; the ship's book of the late H.M.S. " New Zealand." War Literature. —Through the interest and action of the High Commissioner about one hundred copies have been received of the histories published by various British regiments. South Sea Island Dialects. —A large number of books were added during the year, correspondence with various missionaries anel others engaged in the field having brought a ready response, so that the-, valuable collection started by the late Mr. Turnbull is being kept up. A bibliography of literature in these dialects has for some time been in preparation by Mr. T. A. Ferguson, of Sydney. Parts 1 and. 2 of the New Hebrides section have been published, and Mr. Ferguson has presented copies of these to the library. The library has been in correspondence with him, and it is found that this library possesses a large number of unique volumes in the New Hebrides dialect alone, which i_s the only section so far dealt with. Incunabula. —Some, four years before the war a Commission was set up in Germany to compile a list of all fifteenth-century books existing in the world. As assistance to the German Government, which was interesting itself in the work, the British. Government wrote to the various Dominion Governments asking that lists of such books in their various areas be prepared. The list for New Zealand was prepared from the library, but there has been a good deal of technical difficulty, partly owing to the format of the books being puzzling, partly to the fact that they are mostly in Greek or Latin. By means of circulars anel much correspondence, details of 128 books in New Zealanel were obtained. The library itself has twenty-seven, and since the list was sent away details of thirty-two other books have been obtained, so that a supplementary list will be prepared. The whole list, where details are of a particularly technical nature, has been typed in the library. Copies of Documents. —As the Hawaiian Historical Society desired a photostat copy of Vancouver's MS. log, which is in the library, arrangements were made for this work being done in Wellington. A typed copy of Marsden's Second Journal of 1819 was also made for the Mitchell Library, the work being superintended in the library. Readers and Students. —Forty new readers' permits were issued during the year, the readers being chiefly professional men and women, teachers, and students. Compared witli other public libraries the number of readers seems small. In public libraries, however, the number of readers of fiction is usually about 90 per cent, of the total, and of the others the larger number reael biography and useful arts, leaving but a small percentage who read history and the fine arts. This library contains chiefly history and the fine arts, more especially literature ; but as regards