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The books lent from our stock were classified as follows : history and biography, 235 ■(245) ; literature, 166 (192) ; sociology, 137 (131) ; useful arts, 66 (67); fine arts, 56 (49); natural science, 41 (52) ; philosophy, 29 (29) ; philology, 27 (13); religion, 21 (43); New Zealand, 12 ; bibliography, 9 (37); fiction, 5 (5); parliamentary, 1. Requests which could not be fulfilled at the moment numbered 8. Our borrowings, from five libraries, totalled 16 volumes. During the year, 204 volumes were loaned to the Library School. Recess Privilege The number of recess privilege holders continues to increase towards its pre-war level. This year 871 privileges were issued, compared with 789 in the preceding year -and a low record of 289 four years ago. lam glad to report that there have been practically no losses of books by privilege holders. The recorded occupations of the recess readers are as follows : accountants, 7 ; ■ airmen, 10; architects, 3 ; artists, 4; auditors, 7; authors, 1 ; bank officers, 11; barmen, 1 ; barristers and solicitors, 29 ; bookbinders, 1 ; broadcasting officers, 11; -carpenters, 1 ; chemists, 5 ; civil engineers, 1 ; Civil servants, 137 ; clergymen, 12 ; -clerks, 88 ; commercial travellers, 2 ; company managers and secretaries, 9 ; custodians, 3 ; dentists, 1 ; domestic duties, 119 ; draughtsmen, 3 ; electricians, 9 ; engineers, 9 ; farmers, 1 ; film producers, 1 ; hairdressers, 2 ; hotelkeepers, 3 ; insurance officers, 6 ; journalists, 12 ; laboratory workers, 2 ; law clerks, 7 ; lecturers, 1 ; library assistants, 10 ; manufacturers, 1 ; mechanicians, 7 ; medical practitioners, 7 ; merchants, 6 ; messengers, 10 ; musicians, 2 ; naval officers, 1 ; no occupation, 59 ; nurses, 6 ; police officers, 4 ; postal officials, 5 ; printers and compositors, 19 ; railway officers, 4 ; readers, 1 ; reporters, 1 ; restaurateurs, 1 ; retired, 46 ; secretaries, 3 ; school-teachers, 40 ; soldiers, 11 ; .students, 75 ; town-planners, 1 ; trade-union .secretaries, 4 ; typists, 25 ; waiters, 1 ; waterside workers, 1 ; wireless operators, 1. Books posted to members during the recess numbered 63 baskets and 180 parcels. Binding Congestion of work in the Government Printing Office owing to war demands has in recent years greatly accentuated our difficulties in regard to binding, which fell very .seriously into arrears. Following the return of Mr. R. McEwan from war service there was an increase of staff in the binding branch, which has since done excellent service. The normal work of the bindery includes the blocking and stamping of all new books -and the binding of some of the copyright publications. Additional work which the staff has carried out during the past year was the complete rebinding and lettering of 415 foolscap volumes of Appendices, Journals, Order Papers, and Gazettes and of 176 volumes from the general collection ; the binding of 134 volumes of official papers, law reports, ■evidence of special committees and manuscript letters ;' and the. repairing of 398 volumes of general literature and fiction. The total for one year is 1,133 volumes completed and 271 in hand, in addition to the normal work of treating all new books as they arrived. International Exchange During the year, as agent of the International Exchange, we received from abroad 24 cases (of which 13 were for our own Library) and 1,956 packages, compared with 28 •cases and 2,285 packages in the preceding year. Archives As Controller of Dominion Archives I have during the year attended a number of conferences of departmental heads and record officers for the purpose of discussing the preservation of war records. It seemed to the Chief War Archivist and myself that it was impracticable to separate war records from the main body of departmental papers, :since every Department was more or less involved in the war. We then, as a first measure

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