§ SIR BERNHARD SAMUELSON (Oxfordshire, Banbury)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that, whilst the specifications of American and other foreign patents are supplied regularly, and at an early date, to the Patent Office Library, and whilst our Patent Office supplies copies of patents taken out in this country punctually to our Colonies, information as to Colonial patents is received in this country at long intervals only, and in an incomplete form; whether he is aware that the absence of correct information as to Colonial patents tends to occasion great inconvenience, and not unfrequently considerable loss on our manufactures; and, whether he will endeavour, through the medium of the Colonial Office, to induce our Colonies to reciprocate the advantage which they derive from the early and regular information given to them of our patents, by furnishing to us similar information in return with regard to theirs?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.), in reply, said, he was informed that there was some delay in for warding specifications of Colonial patents to the Colonial Office, and that inconvenience was occasioned at the Patent Office Library thereby. The Secretary of State for the Colonies was in communication with the Colonial Governments on the question, with a view to an improvement in this respect.