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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5057, 8 June 1877, Page 2

If we recollect aright, Mr. Reynolds last session moved that each Parliamentary return pre«eated to the House should bear upon its face the cost of preparation. Honorable members fond o£ calling for long and consequently expensive but very frequently useless returns, objected to the idea, and managed to shelve the motion on the ground of it being impossible to apportion the cost with any degree of accuracy. It seems, however, that this can be and is done in Great Britain, therefore there is no reason why the practice which obtains there should not be followed here. " Constituents" (observes the Glasgow Herald) " if they seek after edification and a little amusement, had better straightway invest 2id. in a Parliamentary paper just issued, showing the cost to the country of the returns moved for in the House of Commons during the session of 1875. We find that during the session referred to close upon £14,000 was spent in the preparation and printing of these so-called returns. Private members are responsible for nearly one-half of this expenditure and the Government for the other. Among the former, Sir George Balfour shines as a star of the first magnitude In the one year mentioned, he himself cost the country no less than £IOO9 17s. Cd. for printing ; and as if he had been actuated by a generous spirit of emulation, we find Mr. Charles Lewis ranking next in precedence, he having found it necessary to enlighten the world to the handsome extent of £856 Is. Cd. Ono paper alone, which Sir George caused to be printed, cost the respectable sum of £412 ob. 9d. True, it related to population, and ought to have been interesting as well as useful; but we find on looking into the instructive document which supplies ns with our facts, that the number of copies sold amounted to fifty-one, and the total sum realised by their sale was a modest 16s, 3d. For whose benefit, instruction, and ment aro those enormous arraya of figures col-

lected, the preparation of which entails very often the necessity of employing an extra staff of clerks ?"- -It will scarcely be denied that the cost of Parliamentary papers in the shape of returns is, in proportion, very much greater in New Zealand, the sale equally limited, and the matter in most cases of exceedingly small interest.