vity by the fisherfolk in the province of Sind. But whether such birds can be bred without cruelty, and if so whether the export of their plumage could be legalised without encouraging barbaries in other areas of the peninsula, is a question which can only be decided as a result of a searching and exhaustive inquiry. Legislation.-Indian legislation on the subject will be studied with interest by those who have followed the course of legislation on this subject in other countries. Until 1887 no legislation was considered necessary in India. An Act of that year enabled local governments and municipal and cantonment authorities to make rules prohibiting under penalties the sale or possession of wild birds recently killed taken during their breeding seasons, and the importation into any Municipal or cantonment area of the plumage of any wild birds during those seasons; and local governments were empowered to apply these provisions to animals other than birds. or Afterwards, in 1902, action was taken under the Sea Customs Act to prohibit the exportation of the skins and feathers of birds, except feathers of ostriches and skins and feathers exported bona fide as specimens illustrative of natural history. Act VIII of 1912 goes much further than the previous law. It schedules a list of wild birds and animals to which the Act is to apply in the first instance, enables local governments to extend this list, empowers local governments to establish "close times," presumably during the breeding seasons, in the whole of their territories or in specified areas, for wild birds and animals to which the Act applies, and imposes penalties for the capture, sale, and purchase of birds and animals in contravention of the "close time" regulations, and for the sale, purchase and possession of plumage taken from birds during the close time. There is power to grant exemptions in the interests of scientific research, and there are savings for the capture or killing by any person of a wild animal in defence of himself or of any other person, and for the capture or killing of any wild bird or animal in bona fide defence of property. One defect in the law may be noticed. When an exporter is discovered, the Customs Department can on a magistrate's warrant have his house searched and seize the feathers found there to produce as evidence that he is engaged in the trade. But they have to return the feathers and can only take possession of them if they are discovered presently in course of export. HIDES, SKINS AND LEATHER. India's local manufactures of skins and leather have steadily increased in recent years. Previous to the outbreak of war, the trade in raw hides in this country was good; there was a large demand for hides, and prices ruled high. While! in the continental markets stocks were high owing to overtrading in the previous year, the United States had a shortage which was estimated at approximately two million pieces. On the declaration of war, the trade which had up till then been brisk was seriously dislocated. Exports to enemy countries, especially to the great emporium of Indian hides, Hamburg, were stopped, and exporters had to find new markets for the raw material. The raw hide business of India, it is well known, has hitherto been largely, if not quite entirely. in the hands of German firms or firms of German origin. Germany has had the largest share of India's raw hides. In the four months before the outbreak of war she took 39 per cent. of the total exports. In 1912-13 she took 32 per cent. and in 1913-14, 35 per cent. Raw hides were exported to Trieste in considerable quantities whence they were taken to Germany or Austria. In the four months before the outbreak of war 15 per cent. of India's exports passed through Trieste in 1913-14 the percentage was 21. The exports in hides and skins in 1926-27 amounted in value to Rs. 14.55 Lakhs. Shipments of raw hides and skins amounted to 50,627 tons which was only 200 tons less than the exports of the previous year. Fifty-five per cent of the exports under this head consisted of raw hides which amounted to 27,900 tons valued at Rs. 2,57 lakhs as compared with 28.400 tons valued at Rs. 3,21 lakhs shipped in the preceding year. Conditions of the Trade.-The trade in hides and skins and the craft in leather manufacture are in the hands cither of Mahomedans or of low caste Hindus, and are on that account participated in by a com paratively small community. The traffic is subject to considerable fluctuations concomitant with the vicissitudes of the seasons. In famine years for instance the exports of untanned hides rise to an abnormal figure. The traffic is also peculiarly affected by the difficulty of obtaining capital and by the religious objection which assigns it to a position of degradation and neglect: it has thus become a monopoly within a restricted community and suffers from the loss of competition and popular interest and favour. No large industry has changed more rapidly and completely than that of leather. By the chrome process, for example, superior leather may be produced from the strongest buffalo hides in seven days, from cowhide in twenty-four hours, and from sheep and goat skins in six to eight hours; and these operations formerly took thirty days or as much as eighteen months. Of these changes the native tanners of India were slow to take advantage, but in spite of general backwardness the leather produced by some of the tanneries, especially those under European management, is in certain respects equal to the best imported articles. But since the outbreak of war pro⚫ gress has been more rapid and considerable quantities of special forms of chrome leather, for which Indian hides are particularly suitable, have found a ready market in London. Protecting the industry.-The report of the Industrial Commission pointed out that the principal difficulty at present in the hides and leather industry was the lack of organisation and expert skill. Government action to foster the industry was first taken in September 1919, when a Bill was introduced in the Imperial Legislative Council further to amend the Indian Tariff Act, 1894. The effect of this Bill was officially described as follows: "It is to impose an export duty of 15 per cent. on hides and skins with a rebate of 10 per cent. on hides and skins exported to other parts of the Empire, and there tanned. Its object is to ensure that our hides and skins shall be converted into fully tanned leather or articles of leather so far as possible in India and failing this in other parts of the Empire, instead of being exported in a raw state for manufacture in foreign countries." Sir George Barnes who was in charge of the Bill and described the tanning industry as one of the most promising Indian industries explained that "the present position is that we have in India at the present time some hundreds of tanneries for the tanning of hides, a large number of which have come into existence in order to satisfy military requirements during the war. We have in fact the foundations of a flourishing tanning industry, but there is reason to fear that it may tend to dwindle and disappear with the diminution of military requirements, if some other support is not given. We want to keep this industry alive, and we believe that in this case protection in the shape of a 15 per cent. export duty is justifiable and ought to be effective. It is clearly just also that the same measure of protection should be extended to the tanners of skins whose business, as I have already stated, was injured by the necessitles of the war. Though Indian tanneries have enormously increased in number during the past three years, they can only deal with a comparatively small proportion of the raw hides and skins which India produces, and it is to the advantage of India and the security of the Empire generally that this large surplus should, so far as possible, be tanned within the Empire, and with this end in view the Bill proposes a 10 per cent. rebate in respect of hides and skins exported to any place within the Empire. I should add that it is proposed to limit by notification the benefit of this rebate to hides and skins actually tanned within the Empire; and Indian hides and skins re-exported from an Empire port for the purpose of being tanned abroad will not be entitled to any rebate." GRAIN ELEVATORS. The question of adopting elevators for the handling of Indian grain has engaged attention for some time and has assumed increased importance in the light of the railway congestion experienced in recent years and more particularly in the grain season. In the last three years great strides have been made by other Countries in the adoption or perfecting of the elevator system, and a large mass of contemporary data on the subject has been brought together by the Commercial Intelligence Department. Since the subject is one that cannot receive adequate consideration in India till the facts are before the public, these have been embodied in a pamphlet entitled Indian Wheat and Grain Elevators, by the late Mr. F. Noel-Paton, Director General of Commercial Intelligence to the Government of India. The work gives full particulars regarding India's production of wheat, and shows that less than one-eighth of the crop is exported. It describes the conditions under which the grain is held and the risks that it runs. It is pointed out that the cultivator has no adequate means of preserving his wheat and that he is constrained to sell at harvest time: also that the prices then obtained by him are considerably lower than those usually current in later months. The constant nature of the European demand is explained and an attempt is made to gauge the probability that the enormously increased quantities of wheat to be expected when new irrigation tracts come into bearing would be accepted by Europe at one time and at a good price, or could be economically transported under a system in which a few months of congestion alternated with a longer period of stagnation. Figures are given which suggest that in practice the effect of equipping railways to do this is to intensify the evil and so to engage in a vicious circle. The author explains the structural nature of elevators and their functions as constituted in other countries. Particulars are given as to the laws that govern their operations in such countries. TRADE The Indian Merchandise Marks Act (IV of 1889) was passed in 1889, but its operation In the earlier years was restricted, especially in Calcutta, in consequence of the lack of adequate Customs machinery for the examination of goods. In 1894, with the introduction of the present tariff, the Customs staff was strengthened for the examination of goods for assessment to duty, and this increase enabled examination to be made at the same time for the purposes of the Merchandise Marks Act. The Act was Intended originally to prevent the fraudulent sale of goods bearing false trade marks or false trade descriptions (as of origin, quality, weight, or quantity). While the Act was before the Legislature a provision was added to require that piece-goods should be stamped with their length in yards. In this respect these goods are an exception, for the Act does not require that other descriptions of goods should be stamped or marked, though it requires that when goods are marked the marks must be a correct description. The number of detentions under the Act during the twenty years MARKS. Detention is but rarely followed by confiscation, and there have been only 64 such cases during the past ten years. Usually detained goods are released with a fine, and this procedure was followed in 16,919 cases out of the 27,184 detentions ordered in the same period. In 10,198 cases the detained goods were released without the infliction of a fine. In this period of ten years 9 per cent. of the detentions were on account of the application of false trade marks or false trade descriptions. In 69 per cent. of the cases detention was ordered because the country of origin was either not stated or was falsely stated, and in 22 per cent. because the provisions of the Act for the stamping of piece-goods had been infringed. INDIAN INVENTIONS AND DESIGNS. The A handbook to the Patent Office in India, by the Rules made under those Acts. which is published by the Government Patent Office does not deal with trade mark Press, Calcutta, gives the various Acts, rules, or with copyright generally in books, pictures, and instructions bearing on the subject together music and other matters which fall under the with hints for the preparation of specifications Indian Copyright Act III of 1914. There is, and drawings, hints for searchers and other in fact, no provision of law in British India for valuable information that has not hitherto the registration of Trade Marks which are been readily accessible to the general public protected under the Merchandise Marks Act in so convenient a form. In the preface the (IV of 1889) which forms Chapter XVIII of the Controller of Patents and Designs explains Indian Penal Code. the scope of the Patent laws in India and indicates wherein they differ from English law and procedure. The foundation of patent legislation throughout the world lies in the English "Statute of Monopolies" which was enacted in 1623, the 21st year of King James the First. In part this Act has been repealed, but the extant portion of the more important section 6 is as follows:"Provided also that any declaration before mentioned shall not extend to any letters patent and grants of privilege for the term of fourteen years or under, hereafter to be made of the sole working or making of any manner of new manufactures within this realm to the true and first inventor and inventors of such manufactures, which others at the time of making of such letters patent and grants shall not use, so as also they be not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the State by raising prices of commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient; the said fourteen years to be accomplished from the date of the first letters patent or grants of such privilege hereafter to be made, but that the same shall be of such force as they should be if this Act had never been made, and of none other." The existing Indian Patent Law is contained in the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911, supplemented by the Indian Patents and Designs (Temporary Rules) Act, 1915, and On the whole, Indian law and procedure closely follow that in the United Kingdom for the protection of inventions and the registration of designs, as they always have done in matters however, as owing to the absence of provision of major interest. One main difference exists, of law for the registration of trade marks, India cannot become a party to the International Convention under which certain rights of priority are obtainable in other countries. privileges to inventors was passed in 1856, after The first Indian Act for granting exclusive an agitation that had been carried on fitfully from an uncertainty as to the effect of the for some twenty years. Difficulties arising Royal Prerogative prevented earlier action, and, owing to some informalities the Act itseli was repealed in the following year. In 1859 it was re-enacted with modifications, and in 1872 the Patterns and Designs Protection Act was passed. The protection of Inventions Act then the Inventions and Designs Act of 1888. of 1883, dealing with exhibitions, followed, and All these are now replaced by the present Act of 1911. British India, including British Baluchistan and The existing Acts extend to the whole of the Santhal Parganas. This of course includes Burma, but it does not embrace the Native States. Of the latter three, viz., (1) Hyderabad (Deccan), (2) Mysore, (3) Gwalior have ordinances of their own, for which particulars must DACCA gong Division. be obtained from the Government of the States CHITTAGONG .Office of the Commissioner, Chittain question as they are not administered by the Indian Patent Office in Calcutta. The ob ject of the Act of 1911 was to provide a simpler, . Office of the District Board, Dacca. more direct, and more effective procedure in ..Office of the Deputy Commissioner. regard both to the grant of patent rights and to HYDERABAD. Industries and Commerce Departtheir subsequent existence and operation. The changes made in the law need not here be referred to in detail. They gave further protec tion both to the inventor, by providing that KARACHI his application should be kept secret until LAHORE acceptance, and to the public, by increasing the facilities for opposition at an effective LONDON MYSORE POONA Important amendments have been made in RANCHI the Indian Patents and Designs Act since 1911, the most important being the priority given to Indian Inventors over others to apply for Bri- RANGOON tish patents within 12 months from the date of the Indian application. Similarly, an applicant ROORKEE for a British patent has priority over other applicants in India for 12 months from the date of his British application. Printed Specification of applications for patents, which have been accepted (8 annas per copy), may be seen free of charge, together with other publications of the Patent Office at the following places: AHMEDABAD..R. C. Technical Institute. BANGALORE .Indian Institute of Science. ..Department of Commerce and BOMBAY ..Record Office. ment of His Highness the Nizam's Government. . Office of the City Deputy Collector, ..Punjab Public Library. .. The Patent Office, 25, Southampton Buildings, W. C. ..Record Office, Egmore. ..College of Engineering. ..Office of the Secretary to Govern. ..Victoria Technical Institute. .. Office of the Director of Indus- ..Office of the Revenue Secretary .. Thomason College. SHOLAPUR Patent Office Handbook (Acts, The Indian Patents and Designs Act, Price Rs. a. .. 1 0 0 10 ..each 0 2 .. 0 2 ABSORPTION OF GOLD (both coin and bullion) IN INDIA (In lakhs of Rupees.) 4. Net imports (ie, 51,74 61,86 1,01,19 1,58,81 2,77,15 3,72,61 4,66,83 51,74 61,19 88,31 1,52,24 2,58,04 3,55,68 4,38,32 Note.-The quinquennial average figures are Inserted only for comparative purposes. and net progressive absorption (Item 10) are calculated on the annual figures and are not yearly figures in item 5 and item 10 the sum of the yearly figures in Item 8. (a) Excludes gold imported and exported on behalf of the Bank of England, (b) Figures are for calendar year ending 31st December. 5,19,67 5,96,14 6,33,22 |