3

H.—24

We have the honor to submit the following suggestions for your consideration :— 1. The present system of allowing any department to send work to the Printer should at once be discontinued. All work, other than parliamentary papers, should be sent into the office through the Colonial Secretary's Department. It would save very considerable waste were one of the officers in the Colonial Secretaryr's Department made the sole channel of communication between the Government Buildings and the Printer. Such officer should possess some technical knowledge of the trade, and be competent to advise his chief as to the reasonableness and form of the work proposed to be sent out. It would be the duty of such an officer to obtain from the Printer an estimate of the cost of all work projected, for the information of the Colonial Secretary, in order that work which promised to cost more than it appeared likely to prove worth might be withdrawn from the Printer's hands. We need not do more than point out the good effects which would be likely to result from such a system of check as we suggest, in inducing the various departments to consider before sending everything indiscriminately to the printing office. 2. To prevent the great waste now experienced in. consequence of work sent from the Government Buildings being allowed to remain in the Printer's hands without definite instructions, in some cases for twelve or eighteen months, we are of opinion it would be well that it should be understood that, as a rule, the Printer will break up all matter in hand for three months, for which no final orders have been received. It would very seldom, happen, that any inconvenience would result from the adoption of such, a system, while heads of departments would very quickly ascertain that it was their duty to see that final instructions to proceed or to delay were sent through the proper channel, in the case of all work from time to time sent out. 3. We think that the Printing Office should not be made a general convenience for the printing of documents of which a few copies only arc required for temporary purposes. 4. In regard to the parliamentary work done during the session, we have no suggestions to offer further than to point out that a considerable saving might be effected by curtailing the circulation of the Order Papers as a bound volume. Probably a supply of bound numbers for the Library and for Ministers'rooms would bo sufficient, in which case at least 200 volumes in each year could be discontinued. 5. In regard to parliamentary papers, Gazettes, and statutes, circulated to mechanics' institutes and libraries, we are of opinion that a large saving could also be effected without public inconvenience. It is only too clear that in a great number of cases these papers are not valued. In one instance brought under our notice, the Government Printer was appealed to by the secretary of an institution, who desired that he would be pleased to purchase a series of such papers for waste-paper. The Printer, we need not say, had to decline the bargain. We would suggest that the circulation of the Gazettes, statutes, and parliamentary papers should be stopped in the case of any library or mechanics' institute whose secretary had not transmitted to the Government Printer, in the months of March, April, or May in each year, a certificate from the Chairman of the county or Mayor of the borough in which such institute is situate, to the effect that papers previously forwarded were properly filed in an accessible place for public reference. 6. The Gazette might be made more remunerative. We see no reason why a moderate charge of £.1 a year should not be made to Justices of the Peace, who might be desirous of receiving the publication. 7. We learn from the Government Printer that the commercial demand for parliamentary papers is steadily on the increase, and we agree with him that every facility should be afforded, by the offer of moderate commissions to agents, to encourage this demand. 8. In the case of the Postal Guide, which is issued quarterly, we feel strongly inclined to recommend that Is. per number should be charged instead of 6d. as at present, in order to give a better return for the large outlay incurred. It might, however, be considered more advisable to decrease its bulk, by