A.—2

No. 33. New Zealand, No. 209. My Lord, — Downing Street, 6th November, 1924. With reference to the Duke of Devonshire's despatch, No. 153, of the 19th July, 1923, and to subsequent correspondence regarding the holding of an Imperial Mycological Conference in this country, I have the honour to request Your Excellency to inform your Ministers that the Conference was duly held in London in July last. A report of the Conference has been submitted to me by the Chairman, Lord Buxton, and printed copies are enclosed for the information of your Ministers. 2. It will be observed from the letter addressed to me by the Chairman, which is printed on the first page of the report, that the Conference was widely representative and was in every way a success. It is a matter of great satisfaction to me that the opportunities provided by the Conference not only for the profitable discussion of scientific problems, but also for the establishment of personal contact between mycologists in the various parts of the Empire, have been so highly appreciated and may be expected to lead to such valuable results, and I am particularly gratified to learn of the tributes which were paid on all sides to the work of the Imperial Bureau of Mycology. I hope that it will be found practicable to hold similar conferences once in five years in future, as recommended in Resolution No. 5 of the Conference. 3. With regard to the other resolutions of the Conference, I enclose for your information a statement which has been forwarded to me by the Chairman embodying the views expressed by the Managing Committee of the Bureau at their last meeting. I do not propose in this despatch to elaborate the views of the Committee except with regard to Resolution No. 10, which raises the whole question of the finances of the Bureau, and on which the Chairman has addressed me at some length. In this connection I would invite attention to the Duke of Devonshire's despatch, No. 251, of the 7th December, 1923, in which it was intimated that the future requirements of the Bureau would form one of the principal subjects of discussion at the Conference. It was thought desirable to await the result of this discussion before requesting the oversea Governments to contribute towards the maintenance of the Bureau for a further period of years, and my predecessor therefore confined himself in the despatch to which I refer to requesting the continuance of your Government's contribution for the year 1924-25. In your telegram of 13th February, 1924, you expressed the concurrence of your Ministers in this procedure. 4. The scheme of expenditure showing the financial requirements of the Bureau for the next five years, which is printed in Appendix lie to the report, was, I understand, very carefully prepared by a special sub-committee of the Managing Committee, in collaboration with the finance sub-committee. It was subsequently approved in general by the Managing Committee for submission to the Imperial Mycological Conference. A sub-committee of the Conference, on which the delegates from the oversea Governments were fully represented, was formed to consider this scheme, and came to the unanimous conclusion, as expressed in paragraph 3 of Appendix lla to the report, that the scheme " was essential to the efficient maintenance of the Bureau for the next five years, that an income of £6,500 per annum will be required to enable the scheme to be adopted, and that appeal should be made to the Governments of the self-governing Dominions, India, the Sudan, and the colonies and protectorates to provide this sum." This recommendation was unanimously accepted by the Conference and recorded in the resolution to which I refer. I have outlined the various stages at which this scheme of expenditure has been subjected to close examination, not only by the Managing Committee of the Bureau but also by the Imperial Mycological Conference, in order to show that the scheme is not the outcome of hasty or ill-considered demands, and that in its preparation due regard was paid to the need on the one hand for economy and on the other hand for the efficient performance by the Bureau of the work which the various Governments entrust to it. The position is, in brief, that the operations and activities of the Bureau have, with the growing demands of Dominion

26