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The liistory and travel sections of the New Zealand collection are being reclassified and recatalogued in accordance with a recent extension of the New Zealand class in the Dewey Decimal Classification, which has been adopted by most of the libraries in this country. This valuable section of the Library is very overcrowded in its present quarters, as it has doubled in numbers in the last ten years and grows apace yearly. A larger room to house it is badly needed. A start has been made on the proper classification and arrangement of our map collection, numbering some thousands. Additional shelving has enabled further work to be done in rearranging the United States official documents, which are constantly being added to and form a useful part of our reference collections. Several shifts of stock have been made, notably the moving of duplicates, which were badly housed in Room 26. These are now in Room 15 in the basement of the main building, where they are properly shelved. In doing this work and in cleaning the book stock the Library has had useful assistance from the messenger staff of the Legislative Department. The duplicates of New Zealand official documents which are saved from destruction by the Library from time to time are proving useful in supplying overseas libraries, which are making ever-increasing demands for our publications. Volumes have been supplied to the Royal Empire Society to replace war losses and to the University of California. The reference section continues to serve not only Members of Parliament, but also Government Departments and the general public. Considerable work was done by the staff for Royal Commissions and Committees. Two select lists were produced for the use of Members —on population and on the Bretton Woods Agreement. Thirty-five students have been using the Library for research purposes during the current year, compared with 25 in the previous year. We badly need a special room for their use as, under present conditions, we find it hard to accommodate them all during the session. Book Stock The number of books accessioned during the financial year was 5,741, compared with 4,694 in the previous year and an average of 3,259 up to 1946. The total of volumes now accessioned is 185,150. This is not the number of volumes in the Library, as over the years there have been numerous books withdrawn or lost which are not accounted for here. The new accessions were classified as follows (the figures for the previous year being shown in parentheses): bibliography, 316 (167); newspapers, 173 (148); philosophy, 61 (69); religion, 135 (165) ; sociology, 1,403 (1,023) ; parliamentary, 418 (229) ; philology, 48 (61) ; natural science, 194 (141) ; useful arts, 600 (462) ; fine arts, 377 (312); literature, 447 (509) ; travel and history, 673 (649); biography, 353 (249); fiction, 406 (347); New Zealand, 137 (64). Despite the increased annual grant, with the present high costs we are still unable to obtain all the material which should be found on the shelves of a Library such as this. Subscriptions to periodicals have increased in most cases by 50 per cent, during the last twelve months, and we are finding it desirable to widen this field, as periodical literature is one of the best means of keeping abreast of current developments. Manuscripts Our manuscript collection has been enriched by two presentations of importance. Mr. J. E. F. Yogel has given the family papers of his grandfather, Sir Julius Vogel, and his father, Harry B. Yogel, the novelist; and a quantity of the papers of the Right Hon. J. G. Coates has come to us through the kind offices of Mrs. J. N. Massey.

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