PAY FOR IT AT LEISURE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11512, 19 February 1903, Page 6

PAY FOR IT AT LEISURE.

jThe instalment system of selling books is by no meojw a new one, but the plan of sale adopted by "The Times" is a. direct inversion of the familiar process. The old theory of idling a large book in parts was that tihe purchaser received the. volumes in driblets and paid for them in driblets. Thin plan apparently gave the purchaser a grrat advantage—the convenience of gradual payments—but the gain was only a nominal ooe. Ho did not have to pay the purchase price in one lump euro; but, on the other hand, ho got no real value for his money until he had completed his payments, for tihe incomplete parte gave him no more than a mockery of possession. The plan, in #ccordance with which '' The Times" issue of " The Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia and Atlas" m offered to residents of New Zealand, presents the convenience, and eliminates tho irconvenience, of this o!tl process. The complete work, 10 royal octavo volumes, is delivered ac soon ac the purchaser begins to make his serial payments; the only postponement in the transaction is for the purcliaeer'R benefit, for :he enters into immediate and complete possession of the work, and pays at leisure. ' * "The Century , ' is not" only the best •vrork of ita kind, but the only one; for the whole plan of its arrangement' is an original one. It la. the only work of reforence which con fairly be described as Ht once a word-book and a fact-book and a complete ntlaa of the world. The Cyclopredia of Proper Names (Vol. IX,) alone contains 150,000 titles. , To prompt applicants a handsome prospectus .'will be *ent free on application by post to the manager of " The Timee. ,,