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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 20TH APRIL, 1905.
The principal divisions of the work of the Imperial Institute are as follows :-
1. The Indian and Colonial Economic Collections.—Extensive collections illustrating the economic resources of India and the Colonies have been brought together, and are arranged for exhibition, on a geographical basis, in suitable galleries open to the public, free, daily.
Some 36 British Colonies and Dependencies are represented by collections of their products.
The expert staff of the Collections consists of the Superintendent of the Colonial Collections and assistants, and the Superintendent of the Tudian Section, appointed by the India Office.
These officers are in daily attendance at the Institute, and in addition to their other duties in the Collections, they are prepared to give information concerning the products and resources of India and the Colonies, and to offer facilities to enquirers on these and allied questions.
The whole Collections are now in progress of complete reorganization, to render them of greater value for commercial, educational, and technical purposes. The details of this scheme are dealt with later.
2. The Scientific and Technical Department.-This Department has extensive laboratories in the Institute, expressly equipped for the investigation of the composition properties, and uses of all classes of economic products.
3. The Library.-The Library of the Institute contains an extensive collection of official public- ations and works relating to the history, general conditions, and products of India and the Colonies.
The more important Indian and Colonial newspapers are taken in regularly and are available, together with the Library itself, under certain conditions to visitors to the Collections.
4. The Central Stand for Publications and Enquiries.- A Central Stand is maintained in the public galleries of the Economic Collections, where a large number of publications, containing inform- ation relating to commerce, agriculture, mining, etc., in India and the Colonies, are displayed. The majority of these publications are for free distribution to enquirers. Other publications, .., the handbooks of the Emigrants' Information Office, various colonial handbooks and official reports are kept for sale.
That the Central Stand has been appreciated is shewn by the fact that since it was opened in March, 1903, nearly 16,000 publications have been distributed in response to personal application.
An officer of the Institute is in attendance at the Central Stand during the hours the Galleries are open, to answer verbal enquiries, to facilitate which he is in telephonic communication with the General Office.
5. Emigration.-The Imperial Institute works in co-operation with the Emigrants' Information Office. The circulars and handbooks of the Emigrants' Information Office are distributed or sold at the Central Stand, and every facility is offered to would be emigrants to see specimens of the products of, or to acquire information concerning, British Colonies.
The British Women's Emigration Association and the Colonial Nursing Association have been - provided with offices in the main building of the Institute, and their officers are regularly in attendance
to give information and advice.
6. The Imperial Institute Bulletin" is published regularly as a quarterly supplement to the Board of Trade Journal, at the nominal price of ld.
Its contents include information respecting the Economic Collections, summaries of reports of investigations made in the Scientific and Technical Department, and general notices prepared by the scientific staff of the Institute, relating to economic products and their commercial developinent.
THE COLONIAL ECONOMIC COLLECTIONS.
The Colonial Collections of the Imperial Institute are in progress of complete reorganization in order to render them of greater value for promoting commerce, extending public knowledge of the Colonies and their resources, imparting information to intending settlers and emigrants, and illustrating the progress of applied science in the utilisation of economic products. This work is being actively carried out in several of the Courts in co-operation with the respective Colonial Governments,
The means adopted to attain the above objects are :----
1. The provision of suitable maps, illustrating general features of the Colony, incans of
communication, climate, agriculture and mining districts, etc.
2. Descriptive and tabular statements of important economic data, such as area, population,
revenue and expenditure, trade and principal products.
3. Specimens of the principal products, vegetable, animal, and mineral, of the Colony; both products exported and products only used locally, the two groups being clearly distinguished. In the case of manufactured articles, all stages from the raw product to the finished article, together with by-products, are shown as far as possible."