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Cataloguing Section The number of volumes catalogued at 31st March, was 80,880. As the number of acquisitions was greater than the number of books catalogued, the department is now behindhand with current work. The loss of trained cataloguers is in large part responsible for the present position, but mainly the carrying-out of stocktaking—the first since the library was thrown open to the public —meant that during the past year cataloguing was done on only three days each week. It has been found that the demands of routine work make very difficult such additional tasks as this. The stocktaking involved also much checking and amendment to the catalogues, and many irregularities were remedied. The shelves now, however, apart from crowding, are in better order than since the removal of half the bookstock to Masterton. Acquisitions The past year has been particularly fruitful in developing the library's collections, for it has been possible to take advantage of a number of opportunities of acquisition on the antiquarian book market, and both the Pacific and English literature sections have profited. A few of the more interesting are noted here. Pacific Material A work that has been sought for some years is Stolpe's essays on the Ornamental Arts of Savage Peoples, of classic importance in Pacific ethnology. In the same field studies by such authorities as Bastian, Leenhardt, Kubary, Finsch, Wagner, Kaudern and Clerk and Schmeltz, were located and secured. It was particularly satisfactory to acquire Gervais " Historical description of the Kingdom of Macassar," 1701, and Ansdell's " Highlands of Yiti Levu," 1876, a rare Fijian work that has been needed for many years. Good files of " The American Anthropologist " and the " Journal of American Folklore " completed groups that were already held in part and which have much Pacific material. Similarly, the reports of the Netherlands Scientific Expedition to New Guinea were completed, commenced originally by Alexander Turnbull. Sets of the Nautical Magazine, the " Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute," and of the " Church Missionary Record " added strength in their fields for Pacific reference. Two magnificent works of Australian interest were Fitzgerald's " Heemskirk Shoals " and Prout's " Sydney Illustrated," both published during the year, but of historical importance. The most notable acquisition, however, was a group of MSS. of Katherine Mansfield. These included several poems, a portion of " The Aloe " and of an early diary. These came from Mr. Middleton Murry, and apart from a few other items in the Library are almost the only manuscripts of this writer known to be in New Zealand. English Literature Further additions, mainly of first editions, were secured of the following authors' works : Gissing, Defoe, Wm. Godwin, Conan Doyle, Lancelot Andrewes, Aphra Behn, Shelly (" The Masque of Anarchy," 1819), William Cobbett, Joseph Ritson, and Sir Philip Sidney's " The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia," 1598, Capell's edition of Shakespeare's works has been almost the only notable one lacking in the very strong Shakespearean collection, and a good set was added this year. Of especial note was a fine copy of Jethro Tull's " Horse-hoeing husbandry," 1733, a landmark in the march of British Agriculture,

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