N.Z. PLACING A QUOTA ON KNOWLEDGE

Chronicle (Levin), 19 March 1946, Page 8

N.Z. PLACING A QUOTA ON KNOWLEDGE

-Press Association

IMPORT FOLICY SHUTS OUT BOOKS

By Telegraph—

WELLINGTON, March 18. New Zealand today is in effect putting a quota and a tax on knowledge, that opinion was expressed today by Mr. Walter G. Harrap, a director of the publishing lirm of George G. Harrap, Ltd., a,nd a past president of tlie Publisliers' Association of Great Britain. New Zealand, which fornferly had the greatest book-buying public of any country in the British Empire, -was now tlie only country in the Empire which imposed any quota or tax on books niiported from any part of the sterling area, Mr. Harrap said. Discussing the result, he said: "If a hookaeller is vvorkmg on a lnnited quota, he must think, firstly about his commercial 8 good health and, secondly, about the qualitj'- of the books he handles. He will buy first books that will sell quiekly and not remain on his shelves. Books that heip to edueate tlie people are usually sJow selling. They are the ones lilcely to be shut out of New Zealand, ' Catchpenny ' best-sellers are the ones on which the greater part oi' his cpiota will be expended." The New Zealand Government might well considel" whether the amount of revenue it received from tlie 3 per eent pn ui age on books was worth the stigma attaching to the only country in the Empire to countenance such a tax. When Britain sold all her securities in order to,contiiiue tlie war, she stitf ex empted books from the purcliase tax, which was imposed on all articles*ex cept those essential to the Jif'e of the people. It was recognised that books were something more than mere merchandise. At present, said Mr. Harrap, the demand for books was far greater than could be met by tlie manufacturmg potentialities of the trade in the Eng-lish-speaking world. He considered that, within 12 to 18 montlis, the Britisli trade would be able to give full supplies of a limited number of titles in production. It would be at least iive years, however, before the public would be able to get all the titles it wanted.