PICTORIAL HISTORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 90, 14 March 1941, Page 14

PICTORIAL HISTORY

End Of A Big Publishing Venture

ing achievements in New Zealand experience, and incidentally one of the finest contributions to the knowledge both here and overseas of our Dominion history, has just been completed by the publication of the 30th and concluding volume of the pictorial surveys "Making New Zealand," issued by the Centennial Branch of the Internal Affairs Department. The assembling and preparation of the data, particularly of the many hundreds of photographs, was a task of considerable magnitude, but the wide-spread distribution of the completed copies has been a task of equal importance. The Pictorial Surveys are now known in all English-speaking countries, aud requests for further sets are constantly arriving from many parts of the world. Anyone who imagined that these surveys were of interest solely to New Zealand will be surprised to learn that many hundreds of copies, not of single issues, but of complete sets, were sold from the bookstand in the New Zealand Pavilion at the New York World Fair, @) NE of the greatest publish-

and that the department received an inquiry from the book trade in London for the trade terms, in September, 1940 -that is, during the height of the blitzkrieg. Distribution Overseas Realising the advantage to New Zealand, through the pictorial presentation of our history and present-day life that these surveys provide, the Department of Internal Affairs set out to place copies of the sets in the hands of as many important people overseas as possible. Copies were sent to the leading universities of the world, to many important libraries, to the House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries, while the New Zealand Tourist and Trade Commissioners in England, the United States, Canada, and Australia of course spread the knowledge of them further, The Trade Commissioners in the United States and Canada circularised libraries in their territories. An interesting minor result of all this was the receipt the other day of a postcard from a bookseller in Birmington inquiring for copies for sale. Tribute from America Complimentary sets have been presented by the Government to the captains of the transports which have taken

New Zealand soldiers from these shores, to the escorts who accompanied the British children brought here, and to many other overseas visitors, particularly the American journalists and proprietors who were the guests of Pan-American Airways on their first scheduled Clipper trips. One of these, Stephen Royce, wrote on his return to America: "May I compliment you upon the high calibre of workmanship, as well as upon-the exceptionally interesting way in which your material is assembled and presented. I had a perfectly delightful visit to New Zealand, and these books will bring back very pleasant memories. They have also been exceptionally interesting to my family and friends." Appreciation of the printing coming from an American is a tribute to the work of New Zealanders, but this is not the only letter of that kind received. From other sources competent to express an opinion has come confirmation of the fact that the quality of offset printing shown by these illustrated surveys is equal to that of offset printing anywhere in the world. The job was the biggest offset printing order ever placed in New Zealand. Sales in New Zealand Within New Zealand, of course, the sets have been purchased very widely. Over 2,000 complete sets were contracted for by the end of 1939, that is, practically before buyers knew exactly what they were getting, but by the end

of 1940, when the sets were better known, the sales had increased to 6,000 sets. The present Prime Minister, when he was Minister of Education, said that he would like to see a set of the pictorial surveys in every New Zealand home, and to make sure that there was a set in every school, he arranged for the purchase by the Education Department of 2,600 sets, bound in two volumes, for presentation to every public school in New Zealand. In addition, of course, many teachers purchased copies for themselves, and in fact 300 students at the Wellington Teachers’ Training College purchased sets for their own use; 80 students at the Christchurch Training College, and so on. Many hundreds of members of the public have written to Centennial House ordering copies, apart from the extensive sales through the bookshops of the Dominion. Widespread publicity to these pictorial surveys was given voluntarily by the press of the country. When each number appeared it was reviewed by most of the newspapers, in some cases by expert reviewers specially engaged for the purpose, and in other cases by means of a leading article, and often with illustrations as well. They were even reviewed in "The Times Literary Supplement." Several radio talks by book reviewers were devoted to them. Finally, a "fan" note. Some readers are so pleased with their booklets that they have asked the authors to autograph their copies.