The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1909. THE COUNTRY'S PRINTING BILL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 522, 1 June 1909, Page 6

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1909. THE COUNTRY'S PRINTING BILL.

Amongst the'eoonomiea that the Government is endeavouring to effect, so it is announced to-dav, is a curtailment of the output of Government publications. It appears that the Mines Record, the Government Insurance Recorder, the Geological Survey Bulletins, and some of the pamphlets issued by the Department of Agriculture, are to be dispensed with. The public is probably npt aware of' the full extent of the extravagance of the Government as a publisher of papers and periodicals. Necessary papers are pre; pared in a way that' makes their publication unduly expensive; vast! masses of quite unnecessary matter are printed; and most things are printed in such enormous quantities as would 'not be tolerated in any country in which the Government possessed even a faint Bpark of regard for economy. The cost of the Printing Department has risen enormously in the past few years—the total of the salaries rose from £22,469 in 1903 to £33,747 in 1808—a result which is largely due to the recklessness with which publications .are ordored. A number of theses publicationsare very costly, and their usefulness is quito out of proportion to their, oost, but they have afforded employment for many people, and that is a consideration which over-rides all others with a Government w.hose chief concern is to use the taxpayers' money to buy suppbrt,. The Insurance Recorder is a blend of advertising matter, poor jokes, and light topical reading, and it- is published gratis. If the taxpayer is anxious to enjoy a new sensation, he cannot do better than procure the last number of tho Recorder and ponder, upon the comic pictures which bis cash has been employed to produce. The Mines Record is a good publication of its, kind, but it is a costly luxury. The School Journal is merely a poor attempt to furnish up-to-date reading for the schools. Vast num? bcrs of tho Journal are printed, and these are all given away. The Bulletins of the Geological Survey' are cxtromoly fine and very valuable productions. They are packed with fine blocks and drawings and. expensively-produced maps, and are doubtless valued by the keopeie of geo-

logical records. They arc printed, however, in large quantities, and are sold in small numbers at 2s. 6d. each—a price that would not pay the cost of printing even if there were a large popular demand for thom. The Tourist Department, too, has been for a flood of publications of a costly nature, from which thero cat be very litilo possible return.' It boasted in 1907, of having had 103,800 books and pamphlets published in a year! Moreover, the Government has published a great number of books, mainly of a scientific character, for which the demand is so small that they must represent a dead loss on overy copy sold—and many copies lie unsold in the printing warehouse and in the dustiest corners of the book stores.

' This disregard for expense is manifest, too, in the publication of tho Parliamentary papers. Nowhere. is the shameful waste of the taxpayers' money more apparent than in the deluging of the country with the Hansard issueß. . _ Every member is allowed a number of Hansards free of cost, and every session the trains and steamers are for months carrying mailbags stuffed to. bursting with the little pink numbers that are dispatched to tho people whose names have been placed by members upon tho free list. Very few people ever read these numbers. Thousands of the weekly issue of Hansard are thrown away unread. Not only.is there a vast waste of paper and printing here, but a vast waste in the carriage and distribution of a publication which we do not believe there has ever been the slightest inclination on the part of the "public to buy, even at the low price of.2d. a copy. Tho Bame shameful waste appears in the printing, of the Parliamentary papers. Although the Government has every session opposed and prevented the preparation of returns that would be of real value to Parliament and tho public, it has encouraged the preparation and publication of enormous masses of matter of no value to anybody. The number of returns and statements printed each year and published as Appendices to tho Journals of the House run into hundreds. It is vory rarely that less than 1300 copies of any statement are printed—usually the number printed is much greater than that—and the cost of printing ranges from about £l a thousand, 'in the case of such trifling returps as would occupy only a couple of inches of space in a newspaper, to £50 and even £90 in the caso of the : 'longer . and more elaborate documents. It is manifestly absurd to print thousands of copies of returns which nobody will oyer have occasion to refer to. Moreover, the printing of a great number of the returns is unnecessary. And, in almost every case, there is abundant room for simplification and condensation. The regular Departmental reports, are diffuse and full .of trivialities, and packed with oxtravagant tables # wbicb could and should, in tho interests of clarity no less than' of economy, b'o reduced to brevity and order. No attempt, apparently, is made to study either tho needs or the pockets of the public. Money is poured out like water in every direction. Nothing is clearer than that tho application of even the simplest economy in the publishing department'of tho Stato would Save tho country many .thousands of pounds each year.' The question is one that should be made the subject of inquiry in the coming; session. >We are, confident that a return of the figures relating to State publications of all kinds would surprise and shock the public.