Index: src/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/nodetype/xml/NodeTypeReader.java
===================================================================
--- src/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/nodetype/xml/NodeTypeReader.java	(revision 191701)
+++ src/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/nodetype/xml/NodeTypeReader.java	(working copy)
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.Vector;
 
 import javax.jcr.PropertyType;
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@
  * Node type definition reader. This class is used to read the
  * persistent node type definition files used by Jackrabbit.
  */
-public final class NodeTypeReader {
+public class NodeTypeReader {
 
     /**
      * Reads a node type definition file. The file contents are read from
@@ -83,7 +84,7 @@
      * @param xml node type definition file
      * @throws IOException if the node type definition file cannot be read
      */
-    private NodeTypeReader(InputStream xml) throws IOException {
+    protected NodeTypeReader(InputStream xml) throws IOException {
         walker = new DOMWalker(xml);
         resolver = new AdditionalNamespaceResolver(walker.getNamespaces());
     }
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@
      * @throws UnknownPrefixException      if a definition contains an
      *                                     unknown namespace prefix
      */
-    private NodeTypeDef[] getNodeTypeDefs()
+    protected NodeTypeDef[] getNodeTypeDefs()
             throws InvalidNodeTypeDefException, IllegalNameException,
             UnknownPrefixException {
         Vector defs = new Vector();
@@ -318,4 +319,11 @@
         return def;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Returns the namespaces declared in the node type definition
+     * file.
+     */
+    protected Properties getNamespaces() {
+        return walker.getNamespaces();
+    }
 }
Index: src/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/util/DOMWalker.java
===================================================================
--- src/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/util/DOMWalker.java	(revision 191701)
+++ src/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/util/DOMWalker.java	(working copy)
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@
     /** The current element. */
     private Element current;
 
+    /** The namespace mappings defined in the current element. */
+    private Properties namespaces;
+
     /**
      * Creates a walker for traversing a DOM document read from the given
      * input stream. The root element of the document is set as the current
@@ -85,13 +88,15 @@
      * @return prefix to namespace mappings of the current element
      */
     public Properties getNamespaces() {
-        Properties namespaces = new Properties();
-        NamedNodeMap attributes = current.getAttributes();
-        for (int i = 0; i < attributes.getLength(); i++) {
-            Attr attribute = (Attr) attributes.item(i);
-            if (attribute.getName().startsWith("xmlns:")) {
-                namespaces.setProperty(
-                        attribute.getName().substring(6), attribute.getValue());
+        if (namespaces == null) {
+            namespaces = new Properties();
+            NamedNodeMap attributes = current.getAttributes();
+            for (int i = 0; i < attributes.getLength(); i++) {
+                Attr attribute = (Attr) attributes.item(i);
+                if (attribute.getName().startsWith("xmlns:")) {
+                    namespaces.setProperty(attribute.getName().substring(6),
+                                           attribute.getValue());
+                }
             }
         }
         return namespaces;