Hawke's Bay Times. MONDAY, MAY 27, 1867. GENERAL GOVERNMENT REPORTING.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 479, 27 May 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times.

MONDAY, MAY 27, 1867. GENERAL GOVERNMENT REPORTING.

A u'.'t:!S fdJcd u: j nii-.i c ./! icvii: anUii'i”

Messrs. Staeforb & Co., proprietors of thß General Government printing establishment at Wellington have, as we are informed by circular, just added co their already extensive printing and advertising concern the additional branch of a reporting staff, by whose means they intend, during the approaching session of the General Assembly, to procure for publication full reports of all the speeches made in the upper and lower chambers of the Council. Of course this is to be done at the expense of the colony, and they seem to have some anticipation that it will meet with the approbation of rhe newspaper proprietors and their consequent support. The circular we have alluded to has, it appears, been sent to the proprietors of the various

newspapers in the colony—ourselves, of course, included —and contains, as will bo seen, a statement of the inteu-

tious of the parties and tire terms required, as follows ; C ! A vr.-turyh OtlM,-. Wwim-'U.u, l J .ih May, 1507. Sin, —Tli" ( ; .v rr.i’. !.iil M umlor Its consl.lei'alii'i! Mo :.,o,la ~f a,.- ,:vi, IvyorM of iill’ ill-',.'.'a;; of fotli 11 ■ ■ i:-■ ■ - i’i tlu- oiomi!;: -,-.-sion O.'tin* ‘i.-i.i'ral A 1.ii.0 , m„i, wi:: 11 ill \ i -v., la I.iaf.iior ; I :T..; : _.'U,ai:'a to i.o: a oili: ail IVoortrao A. an 1 :;i\o taa ivu.u t- ; .'uio'il f;o;u 1 1 . ai C ,var:i:’i at iViu: by Oil;,”-, i ;.,rofte.i by Mir M r'ford to uuoriuyou tliiit t!,o (Mu■•roou-’ii \\o:M i. ■ v.ilii:,., ; j lioliu-r or ior'.var l Mr vrrh nail ynuuri M:o- of ihc -q,,vclios, iui-imiiuir t.io-.i licliviMv-.i Ur- Turu-diuy in u !u, ou ;io- :'"i,..'.nao iron : lf.iv.- loauil? IMS' u -,v--<■ *: ili.ring the session in c iv’ of a daily yao T. Tv.o yuiuM M:f, a unM M, 'l a imso of a trivoakly y.V'.ar. v):.a I'.oari l ' i .'Mi■ A I ia'.-A i.i tlv* rasa r.f a bi-'.vaakly oa'a t. ]...'!•!.! oC I t i:> ilia aofa w. Aly Taper. At ! 1 an lo Ivor ■'-l 'o'.i to fa Toot ouou :o ia '.fa uabana 0,, tM.uo tan.is ou araoaut oi iiie livVCKifS I>\Y ln;;.s i.o'AViiij.’T. I Lave the lunar to I •, &r., V>’. GIs'.IOUNT,. I iiaar S.vroMry. Now we have no hesitati ju in dee'ariuq fir ourselves, and the whole, Colonial press generally, that lircj proposals of the Government will be rejected, and their scheme, iu cotioer. tier:mo must prove an entire failure ; very few indeed, if any, of the papers wi I adopt them, lor the simple reason that there are hut few whose space is capable of admitting the publication of more titan a condensed r atline, or abstract of the sneeches made in Council, and those which are able wi>l be inclined to employ their own reporters, ra-

: jther than taka upon trust a report -| furnished by tbs Government it s 'df. Again there are with lV\v exceptions, no readers amongst the general public who care for more than au abstract cl the debates, and who if full reports were furnished, would read them or accent them in preference to such ab- • I streets; neither ore there any journals, : [so to speak that will be willing to in;icur an unnecessary expense in paying ; ibr that which in any tiling short of the : full reports furnished by the Goveru- . ment, is not copyright, and may for Jail their purposes be compiled from .! the exchanges received per each steam . vessel, and which usually reach the office through a shipping reporter some ■hours before the delivery of the mails f which would bring them the slips sent .| from the Government cfrice. Indeed ,in such a case as our own, it would be far better to send a special reporter, on , whom we could depend, to the council, ' one that would understand precisely ‘ what portion of the debates would be! . sm'taide for our columns and acceptable i to our ic-aders. and who wmffd transmit!

such reports in a state fit to place at once in the hands of the compositor, than to incur the expense of procuring the full reports from the Government, which would require much study, condensing, and re-writing, before they would be so fitted. We may, however be permitted to make a suggestion to the enterprising originators of the scheme, which is well worth their consideration, and which we feel assured would answer.

or at all events be much more likely to succeed than that which they propose, because it would obviate the necessity of the composition of the matter of these reports, on the part of all the journals ofjtbe colony, thus effecting an economy of labor ; and when wc come to the consideration of the subject, it does seem to be a great waste of time iu the numerous printing offices of the colony, to repeat the operation already performed by the government printers, of picking up and arranging hundreds of thousands of small bits of metal, when a little more work on the part of the government hands, a good machine or two, and some stereotyping, nothing more than is performed daily in the leading establishments at home ; would render the whole of such repetition unnecessary. Oar proposal is that the Government shall publish this matter iu the fo rm of supplements to all the various journals of the colony, and forward them by each mail steamer in parcels ready for delivery by each proprietor to his subscribers. This [dan if adopted will elffct an enormous saving of time as well as of labor, and! would also ensure uniformity and free-| do in from all the errors which are apt; to creep into a. reprint in spite of ail the care of editors and readers. It wn übi be a money saving as well, for the: copies could be supplied at per thou-j mmd, by the Government at a charge! but little iu excess of the cost of the| paper on which they may bo printed. Matters of detail could be easily arrau 6 --,-d. Two, or at most three editions 1 of different sized pages only would bej required to suit the standard pages of| all the colonial journals, and the same! composition would serve for all, as after* the stereos of the larger forms were] taken a new making up could be done! for the smaller sizes, and an occasional change of heading as the requisite number of sheets for each journal were

: thrown oil, this is nearly all that is :needed to complete the scheme, and ! acceptable to the Pressed the Colony. : Seriously we cannot approve of the action taken by the Government in its relation to the Colonial press. ' I hey have established an opposition i business, to the injury of the trade, and not to the advantage of the Colony. No one would for a moment suppose that a Government could establish and maintain a business of the I kind for the same cost as the work ii accomplishes could be performed if 1 submitted to competition in open market, by tender and contract; and, even if it could, it is unjust to a class which, of all others, most, deserves consideration at the hands of the Government, —whose labors are pre-eminently for; the public good, whose difficulties and | risks arc so great as those of the! newspaper proprietors, and meet with so small a return. Instead of the opposition offered to the press by Mr Stafford and Lis Government, the proper course to pursue would be the opposite,—one calculated to encourage and develop its capabilities as a public institution. Such a course would be adopted by au enlightened Govern* ment, who would at once abolish its own monopoly, submit its work to competition in an open field, and use the periodical press as a medium of communication with the people,

la reference to the effect the action of the Government has on the local journals of the colony, the Wellington Independent, of the 23rd last., has the following well-timed remarks, which we take from a powerful leading article on the subject we have above discussed, and which has oar uuquali* fled approval. It says : Newspaper proprietors in a young colony are also general printers, and m every instance that \(b have seen, they improve their journals in a proportion to tlie legitimate promts ot their general business. If the latter an- enrwUfd, then by consefp’.mice, the newspaper muse, be published, with a minted expenditure. Hence the re.il object of the Government is served by their present action, Tiiis last proposal (o report and publish lire Parliamentary debates is another slow aimed at the press. Its object is not to save money but to starve the press, by denying all work to the printing onices. The Independent predicts the failure of the scheme in regard to its procuring the publication of full reports of the proceedings ; so do we, and, not only so, but its entire failure in a financial point as well as in that. Certain it is that the majority of papers would not reprint full reports even if supplied to them gratis, and still more certain is it that they will not pay for what they do not-re--cprire and would not use.