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the Conference to be convened in Canada during the summer of the present year. It is proposed to hold the official meetings in Ottawa, and to arrange tours to various parts of the Dominion for the observation of forest conditions and operations. In view of the great distances to be covered and the necessity of visiting the Pacific coast, a total period of six or seven weeks will be required for the Conference. Taking into consideration the weather conditions usually experienced, and keeping in view the convenience of the organizations through whom arrangements will have to be made, it is at present proposed to open the Conference during the last week of July, and to continue it during August, and for approximately one week in September. In determining the arrangements for the approaching Conference, as well as the number of representatives to be invited, the Canadian Government, having in view the financial limitations of the occasion as well as other necessary considerations, have decided to use as a basis the arrangements for the Conference held in 1920. The Canadian Government are anxious that the self-governing Dominions (including the States having separate forest administrations), India, and the colonies shall be represented at the Conference, and I have accordingly been asked to express on their behalf the hope that your Ministers will be able to nominate two representatives. Tn view of the shortness of time within which the arrangements must be made, I trust that your Ministers will be able to reply to the Canadian Government's invitation at an early date, and I would suggest that the reply should be sent direct to that Government at the same time that you acknowledge this despatch. In transmitting this invitation on behalf of the Government of Canada it may not be out of place to add that the Forestry Commissioners, who made the arrangements for the 1920 Conference in this country, are in hearty concurrence with their proposals. They consider, and I agree in their opinion, that the Conference will prove of great utility, not only from the point of view of forestproduction but also as a step in the direction of general Imperial development, while the fact that the Conference is to be held in a Dominion the forests of which form one of the largest sources of supply of coniferous timber within the Empire cannot fail to contribute to its success. I have, &c, DEVONSHIRE. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. Viscount Jellicoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.V.0., &c.

No. 9. New Zealand, Dominions No. 63. My Lord,— Downing Street, 27th February, 1923. With reference to my predecessor's despatch, No. 173, of the 9th September, 1921, I have the honour to request Your Excellency to inform your Ministers that it is proposed to hold the Second International Seed-testing Congress in this country from the 7th to 12th July, 1924. The Congress will be held partly in London and partly at Cambridge. His Majesty's Government hope that the New Zealand Government will nominate two delegates to attend the Congress. 2. One of the questions which will be discussed at the Congress will be the necessity for raising funds with which to defray the expenses incurred in connection with any schemes for correlating the work of the various official seed-testing stations on problems connected with seed-analyses which the Congress may wish to develop. The cost of the schemes approved at the 1921 Congress is being defrayed by the Danish Government, but, as that country cannot be expected to continue to meet these charges after 1924, it is to be suggested that countries participating in the Congress should contribute an annual sum for this purpose. 3. It is therefore hoped that the New Zealand Government will be prepared to contribute an annual subscription of not exceeding £50 to a fund on which could be borne the cost of any work of correlation which the Congress may decide is necessary in the interests of international trade. I have, &c, DEVONSHIRE. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. Viscount Jellicoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.V.0., &c.

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