LITERARY FUND TO HELP AUTHORS

Chronicle (Levin), 17 October 1946, Page 7

LITERARY FUND TO HELP AUTHORS

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WELLINGTON, Oct. 15. Gratification at the deeision of the Government to establish a New Zealand Literary Fund Avas expressed today by Sir James Elliott, president of the New Zealand Centre of the P.E.N., which body has for-some time advocated such a fund. Sir James said he understood that the . Government had set aside £2000 auiUjLally for that purpose, and if that siyfi were -not exponded in one year, the bulance could be carried forward uutil the following year. A similar fund, continued Sir James,. had existed in Australia for some years, and had been of the greatest benefit to writers and researeh Avorlcers, and he believed.tliat there was another on the saflife-' lines in Great Britain. - "I understand that the University of New Zealand has been working on the same lines with reference to the establishment of its own press," he said. "I believe that both organisations could be very happily combined in the eontrolling committee of the Literary Fund, together with, of eourse, representatives of the Government." The fund's main objects would be to give financial encouragement to the public-ation of books relating to history and life in New Zealand, and, in suitable cases, to the reprinting of such works which, though not of great general appeal, were important to scholars. There were many rare pamphlets and records in private hands, or in the possession of the Parliamentary or Turnbull Libraries, which were ndt available to the public, neither would it, in ordinary eireumstances, be commercially possible to publish them. Under tlie terms of the fund it should be possible tOj make that material accessible in printed form. "Furthermore, it has been customary for the Government duriug recent years to make grants to authors in indigent eireumstances," said Sir James. "Probably that worthv object can now be inet through the fund. The New Zealand Centre of the P.E.N. is extremely grateful for this new provision. Our members have long advocated it, and believe that it will in every way worthily advance the object for which it has been eonstituted — the advancemeiit oi literature iu New Zealand."