H.—32.

1931. NEW ZEALAND.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY LIBRARY. REPORT OF THE CHIEF LIBRARIAN FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1931.

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by Leave.

To the Chairman of the Joint Library Committee. Sib,— I have the honour to report on the operations of the General Assembly Library for the year 1930-31. Accessions. During the year 3,136 volumes were added to the collection from all sources, as compared with 2,906 in the previous year, 2,153 in 1928-29, 2,270 in 1927-28, 2,162 in 1926-27, and 1,501 in 1925-26. The number of volumes accessioned to the end of the financial year was 123,338. The balance in the bank at the end of the year, £319 11s. 4d., was rather less than usual, and orders which have come to hand since then have absorbed practically the whole of that. As in previous years, advantage has been taken of any opportunity to fill up gaps in existing sets of books and to complete sets which required additional volumes. Stocktaking. Owing to the special session early in the present year, it was impossible to carry out all the stocktaking, cleaning, and moving that would normally have been done during the recess. Stock was taken, however, in the class 900-929 (travel and biography). The result was very satisfactory. A considerable number of books which appeared by the stock-sheets to be missing were discovered to have been given two accession numbers, and were thus satisfactorily accounted for. It is hoped in the forthcoming recess to complete the stocktaking in the history section and definitely to write off books that are missing from the Library. Donations. ; During the year the Library has received donations of books from the following : Mr. D. R. Menzies ("Wellington), Mr. J. Wilson (Auckland), Mr. Basil Stocker (Wellington), Sir Thomas Henley (Australia), Mr Albert P. Taylor (Hawaii), Mr. A. E. Currie (Wellington), Mr. Ou Tsin Shuing (Consul for China), Mr. W. H. Ataok (Wellington), Mr. D. W. M. Burn (Otago), Mr. E. H. Freshfield (England), Right Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery (England), Mr. R. Bell (Christchurch), Messrs. R. S. and D. C. Herries (England), the Department of External Affairs, and the Government of Finland. Binding. The binding vote for the year was over-expended. The routine requirements under this vote are considerable, especially for the binding of newspapers ; and there is also a growing expenditure on economic pamphlet literature which is urgently needed and must be bound before issue. Steady progress has also been made in the rebinding of old newspaper files which were falling to pieces through ordinary wear-and-tear. During the year we obtained from the British Museum a small quantity of the dressing used in that institution for the preservation of leather bindings against decay. By treating systematically the leather-bound books in the Library the deterioration of bindings can be appreciably checked.