3. The officer charged with the receipt of the copies referred to in the preceding Article shall give a receipt in writing for the copies received.

4. One of such copies shall be transmitted to the British Museum, another copy shall be disposed of as the Head of the Government shall direct, and another copy shall, after a Memorandum containing the particulars mentioned in Article 5 respecting the said book shall have been registered as hereinafter provided, be deposited in the Public Library.

5. There shall be kept in the office mentioned in Article 2 a book to be called "a catalogue of books printed in the Island of Malta and its dependencies," wherein, in reference to every book which shall have been delivered pursuant to Article 2, shall be registered a Memorandum containing the following particulars :

(1.) The title of the book and the contents of the title-page, with a translation into English of such title and contents, when they are not in that language;

(2.) The language in which the book is written;

(3.) The name of the author, translator, or editor of the book or of any part thereof;

(4.) The subject;

(5.) The place of printing and the place of publication;

(6.) The name or firm of the printer, and the name or firm of the publisher;

(7.) The date of issue from the press or of the publication; (8.) The number of leaves or pages;

(9.) The size;

(10.) The first, second, or other number of the edition; (11.) The number of copies of which the edition consists; (12.) Whether the book is printed or lithographed; (13.) The price at which the book is sold to the public; (14.) The name and residence of the proprietor of the copyright.

Such registration shall be made as soon as possible after the delivery of the copies of the book.

6. The Memoranda registered, during each quarter, in the said catalogue shall be published in the Government Gazette as soon as may be after the end of such quarter; and a copy of such Memoranda so published shall be sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and two copies to the Principal Librarian of the British Museum.

7. It shall be lawful for the Head of the Government to make regulations for carrying out the objects of this Ordinance, and from time to time to repeal or alter such regulations or to make any additions thereto.

Such regulations, and any repeal or alteration thereof, or any addition thereto, shall be published in the Government Gazette.

8. It shall also be lawful for the Head of the Government, by a Notice to be published in the Government Gazette, to exclude any class of books from the operation of the whole or any part of this Ordinance.

Passed the Council of Government, May 16, 1888.

EMILIO DE PETRI, Clerk to the Council.

Assented to this 11th day of June, 1888.

(L.S.) J. L. A. SIMMONS, Governor.

By command.

WALTER HELY-HUTCHINSON, Lieutenant-Governor
and Chief Secretary to Government.

ORDINANCE of the Government of Malta, to authorize the Head of the Government to prohibit, in certain cases, the Exportation, or Conveyance by Sea, of certain articles.

[No. 4.]

[Assented to, February 20, 1889.]

WHEREAS it is expedient to authorize the Head of the Government to prohibit, in certain cases, the exportation or conveyance by sea of certain articles, it is hereby enacted and ordained by his Excellency the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Council of Government, as follows:

ART. 1. It shall be lawful for the Hend of the Government, whenever he shall deem it expedient for the security and defence of these islands, to prohibit, by a Notice to be published in the Government Gazette, the following goods to be exported or carried coastwise: arms, ammunition, and gunpowder, military and naval stores, and any articles which the Head of the Government shall judge capable of being converted into, or made useful in increasing the quantity of, military or naval stores, provisions, or any sort of vietual, which may be used as food for man; and if any goods so prohibited shall be exported or brought to any quay or other place to be shipped for exportation from these islands, or carried coastwise, or be water-borne to be so exported or carried, they shall be forfeited, and the exporter or his agent or the shipper of any such goods shall be liable to the penalty of 1001.

2. The forfeiture referred to in the preceding Article shall take place ipso jure, without the necessity of any judicial procedure, whenever, within eight days from the date of the publication of a notice signed by the Superintendent of Police, no one shall have,

either by an official letter or by another letter addressed to the said Superintendent, claimed the goods seized.

The said notice shall specify the goods seized by the marks or other external signs that they may have, and the reason of the seizure thereof; it shall state that, in default of any claim being preferred by an official letter or by another letter addressed to the Superintendent of Police within the term of eight days to be reckoned from the day of the said notice, the aforesaid goods shall be forfeited, and it shall be published in the Government Gazette and posted up at the door of the principal police station in Valletta.

3. It shall be competent for the Crown Advocate, as representing the Government, to sue, before the competent Court, for the recovery of the penalty referred to in Article 1, as well as for goods forfeited under this Ordinance whenever legal proceedings shall be rendered necessary to that effect.

Passed the Council of Government, February 13, 1889.

EMILIO DE PETRI, Clerk to the Council.

Assented to this 20th day of February, 1889.

(L.S.) H. TORRENS, Governor.

By command.

WALTER HELY-HUTCHINSON, Lieutenant-Governor

and Chief Secretary to Government,

ORDINANCE of the Government of Malta, to encourage Inventions and Improvements in Mechanical Contrivances and Processes of Industrial Manufacture.

[No. 5.]

[Assented to, March 6, 1893.]

WHEREAS it is expedient to encourage inventions and improvements in mechanical contrivances and processes of industrial manufacture, it is hereby enacted and ordained by his Excellency the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Council of Government, as follows:

ART. 1. The Head of the Government may, by a Notice to be published in the Government Gazette, grant to the first and true inventor the exclusive right of manufacturing or using, for purposes of gain, any mechanical contrivance, process of manufacture, pattern, or design for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

Such exclusive right for the scope of this Ordinance constitutes a patent.

2. The applicant for such patent shall file, in the Chief Secretary's office, two copies of a first specification of his invention. The first specification shall contain

(1.) A declaration that the applicant is himself, or that he is the authorized agent of, the true and first inventor;

(2.) A description of the nature of the invention, illustrating the same with the necessary drawings;

(3.) The particular inventions or combinations therein which are claimed by the applicant as new, and for which he asks such patent.

3. There shall be paid, in respect to applications and grants of patents under this Ordinance, such fees, not exceeding those mentioned in the Schedule hereto annexed, as the Government shall fix in each case.

4. Subject to the provisions of Article 8, such patent shall cease whenever it shall be proved, before the competent Civil Court, by any one suing for such declaration, that the invention claimed has been previously made publicly known in these islands, or that the person claiming the patent is not the first inventor or his representative.

5. An inventor may be required to assign his right, or to grant the use thereof, for a consideration to be determined by the competent Civil Court, if the invention or modification to which the patent refers shall not have been put into use within twelve months subsequent to the concession, or if its working shall have been suspended for twelve months continuously.

6. A copy of every specification shall be preserved in the Public Registry or other office which the Head of the Government shall appoint by a Notice to be published in the Government Gazette; and another copy shall be kept in the Chief Secretary's office.

7. An inventor to whom such patent has been granted may, on filing the first specification, request that it be not published, and he may, within a year of the filing of the first specification, file a second amended specification, modifying the first and setting out improvements of details tending to the perfection of the original invention, without altering its nature and without adding to the claims made by the inventor in the first specification. Unless the above request is made, the specification may be made public by the Head of the Government at any time.

8. Any person who has applied for protection of an invention in the United Kingdom, or in any British possession, or any person who has applied for protection in any foreign State with which Her Majesty has made an arrangement for mutual protection of inventions, shall be entitled to a patent for his invention in these islands under this Ordinance, in priority to other applicants, and such [1892-93. LXXXV.]

L

patent shall have the same date as the date of the application in the United Kingdom, British possession, or foreign State, as the case may be.

Provided that his application is made within seven months from his applying for protection in the United Kingdom, British possession, or foreign State with which the arrangement is in force, as the case may be.

Provided that nothing in this Article contained shall entitle the patentee to recover damages for infringements happening prior to the date of the actual acceptance of his complete specification.

The publication in these islands during the period aforesaid of any description of the invention, or the use therein during such period of the invention, shall not invalidate the patent which may be granted for the invention.

The application for the grant of a patent under this Ordinance must be made in the same manner as in ordinary applications.

With respect to foreign States, the provisions of this Article shall apply only in the case of those foreign States with respect to which Her Majesty shall, from time to time, by Order in Council, declare the provisions of section 103 of the Imperial Act 46 and 47 Vict., cap. 57," to be applicable, and so long only, in the case of each State, as the Order in Council shall continue in force with respect to that State.

9. The Head of the Government may refuse to grant any patent when there appears to him sufficient reasons for such refusal. He may also, by Notice in the Government Gazette, enact from time to time any regulations which he may deem necessary for the carrying out of this Ordinance.

10. The Ordinance No. 13 of 1889 is revoked without prejudice of any right acquired under that Ordinance.

Passed the Council of Government, March 1, 1893.