H.—lo

in respect of boxes, 19 to 52, owing principally to demand for improved boxes and modes of carriage for eggs, as a result of the greater attention paid to the poultry industry; in respect of fibre-dressing, 19 to 28, being chiefly attempts to lessen the handling, and consequently the cost in washing and drying processes. The applications lodged for stationery were doubled, owing to the large number of letter and post cards and envelopes patented, and applications in respect of washing and cleansing appliances were more numerous than last year. The falling-off chiefly occurred in "bottles and bottling," 28 to 15; "cultivating," 48 to 21; "fencing," 44 to 27; " locks," &c, 35 to 17; "pipes," &c, 21 to 11; "railways," 52 to 30; "roads" and "ways," 14 to 5 ; and " wearing apparel," 61 to 51. International Convention. During 1904 17 applications were received in this colony under the Convention, 9 from England, 3 each from the United States and Germany, and one each from Queensland and Sweden. In view of the growing importance of the union a brief reference to its provisions so far as they relate to the protection of inventions may be of interest. The Convention was first signed on the 20th March, 1883, and contained nineteen articles relating to the mutual protection of industrial property, No. 4 of these articles providing for the granting of priority in the case of applications for letters patent. The contracting States consisted of Belgium, Brazil, Spain, France, Guatemala, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Salvador, Servia, and Switzerland. The necessary legislation having been passed, the United Kingdom acceded to the Convention on the 17th March, 1884, and this colony on the 7th September, 1891. The terms of the Convention were on the 14th December, 1900, modified by an additional Act, and No. 4 of the articles now runs as follows :— " Any person who shall have duly applied for a patent, industrial design, or model or trade mark in one of the contracting States, shall enjoy, in order to admit of such request being lodged in the other States during the periods of time mentioned below, a right of priority, the rights of third parties being reserved. " Consequently, subsequent registration in one of the other States of the Union, before the expiration of such periods of time, shall not be invalidated by any acts accomplished in the interval —either, for instance, by another registration, by the publication of the invention, or by the working of it, by the sale of patterns, of the design or model, or by the use of the trade mark. "The above-mentioned periods of time during which priority is guaranteed shall be twelve months for patents with respect to inventions, and four months for patents for industrial designs or models, as well as for trade or merchandise marks." As section 106 of the New Zealand Act provides for a term of twelve months, and is otherwise in accordance with the amended Act, this colony was enabled without passing fresh legislation to notify its adherence to the additional Act. The countries now forming the Union are: Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Curacoa, and Surinam, Denmark with the Faroe Islands, East Indian Colonies of the Netherlands, Dominican Bepublic, France, Algeria and Colonies, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal with the Azores and Madeira, Queensland, Santa Domingo, Servia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunis, United States of America. It will be seen that an application in any of these countries carries twelve months priority, or what practically amounts to provisional protection in the others. This arrangement is a great benefit to inventors, and is, I hope, a forerunner of other advantages in the way of simplifying procedure and reducing fees, if not of conferring still greater benefits on the inhabitants of the countries constituting the union. Opposition. Notices of opposition were lodged in respect of 8 applications, 7 hearings took place, and notices of appeal were lodged in 4 cases. Classifying and Indexing. The classification of the records, which has been in hand for some time, has now been completed. The specifications and drawings since 1879 (when the printing of the specifications ceased) are now arranged in the classes set out on page xi., and an index in each class shows against the subject-matter of the various inventions the numbers of the patents granted in connection therewith. A card index or key to the classification has been compiled to facilitate reference. Any one desirous of seeing the inventions on a certain subject has now merely to refer to the key, and having thus ascertained the class turn up the volumes of specifications containing it. By means of the index in front of the former he can readily refer to the full description and plans of the inventions. In order that all the inventions patented by any individual may be turned up with as equal facility as those relating to any subject an index of names is being added to each class. Considerable difficulty has been experienced in indexing some of the classes satisfactorily, and it has been found necessary to make some of the headings in minerals, electricity, &c, rather comprehensive, but room has been left in the indexes to permit of these headings being subdivided if at any time it is considered advisable to do so. The office has been somewhat handicapped, also, in classifying, by having only one set of specifications and drawings to utilise for the purpose, and in many cases where an invention comes in more than one class, it has been obliged to resort to cross references and the insertion of sheets containing the name, address, title, and class in which the specification and drawing have been placed. The work of binding the different classes, rendered very difficult by the drawings being all sorts and sizes, has been carried out in a very satisfactory manner by the Government Printing Office.

II