€.—2

20

The time observatory is maintained at a small expense for the purpose of enabling the Telegraph Department to transmit a daily signal giving the correct mean time for the whole of New Zealand, and enabling time-balls to be dropped for the rating of chronometers at the chief ports of the colony. The Patent Office Library is now placed, together with the New Zealand Institute library, at the Colonial Museum, and has been made as easily accessible as the limited accommodation will permit. A complete catalogue of the Patent Office library will be included with the catalogue of all the other works in the library, which number about six thousand volumes. This catalogue is now in the printer's hands; and, when published, will tend to make the library more easily available to persons residing at a distance. The New Zealand Institute and Colonial Botanic Gardens are both under the management of a Board appointed under statute, but the work connected with this department is entirely performed by the staff of the Geological Department. James Hectoe.

Authority : Gr-ORGE Didsbuby, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBBG.