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and of periodicals are regularly received. Accessibility to the information contained in these publications is aided by an analytical technological index embracing subjects not dealt with in recognized works of reference. The use being made of these resources increases year by year. . Based upon the information so available, and in conjunction with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, this Department issues an Industrial Bulletin containing extracts or summaries from publications on matters calculated to be of value to manufacturers. Distribution of the Bulletin is made only to those who signify a desire to receive it. That it is appreciated is evidenced by the fact that in the past year its circulation brought more than three thousand inquiries on a great variety of subjects for further information or for the full article from which the extract was taken or for some other service. Inquiries based on the issue of the Industrial Bulletin do not, however, set the limit, upon inquiries received for information on technical questions. It is, of course, the Department's desire to meet all proper requests for assistance in the provision of information on matters within its scope which bear on our industry and trade. To render this service we frequently require to go beyond our own resources, and to this end we welcome the scheme made through the New Zealand Libraries Association whereunder the resources of the National Library and the various public and departmental libraries on technical subjects of interest to the industrial and commercial community will be available to us. We welcome, too, the opportunities available to the Department to supplement its sources of information on particular subjects by liaison with the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation and its constituent associations and with the representatives of overseas Governments stationed in New Zealand. Our membership of Associations of Special Libraries in the United Kingdom and in the United States is most helpful, while invaluable assistance has been enjoyed from the local United States Information Library and the Technical Advisory Services Division of the United States Department of Commerce in Washington. Some requests made to the Department have occasioned our referring points to New Zealand official representatives overseas, who themselves have enjoyed helpful co-operation -from Departments of State in their respective countries. Developments overseas in providing technical advisory services by State Departments are being studied, and it may well be if the desire by our own manufacturers for service continues to grow as it has done in the past year or so, that something more will be required of us than has been given up to the present. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEPARTMENT'S ACTIVITIES IN FURTHERING NEW* ZEALAND'S INTERESTS THEREIN It has been stated earlier in this report that the objective of the Commerce Division is to keep abreast of changing conditions of trade and to give every encouragement to its development. Such encouragement as can be given must, of course, be within the terms of international agreements and official prescriptions relating to trade and commerce, and it must conform to our own national policy. A great deal of attention is at present being given to these matters by the Department, both as to the basis on which they now rest and to the possible effects of changes upon New Zealand industry and commerce in consequence particularly of the Government's decision that New Zealand should be a party to international Conferences which it is proposed to hold later this year and in 1947 on trade and employment. These Conferences are to be convened in the first instance to consider proposals submitted by the Secretary of State of the United States of America under date of 6th December, 1945, which have been published by the New Zealand Department of External Affairs as Publication No. 14. The United States' proposals mark the start in the process to meet the desire

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