KNOWLEDGE FOR EXPORT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 353, 29 March 1946, Page 10

KNOWLEDGE FOR EXPORT

Britain Regards Publishing As Being Very Important

ALTER G. HARRAP, a director of the publishing firm of George G. Harrap Ltd., and a former president of the Publishers’ Association of Great Britain, arrived in New Zealand the other day with two objectives (in his own words): "As an observer, to examine conditions in the book trade here; and to attend the conference of the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand in Wellington." He also had another aim-to say forthrightly what he thinks of New Zealand’s three per cent tax (or "primage’’) on imported books, and the system of limited import quotas. In an interview with The Listener, which was a kind of preview of the addresses he gave at the conference the following day, Mr. Harrap spoke his mind about the tax, and then talked of the prospects for the return to normal conditions of British publishing, of new trends in reading taste, of the English book-buying public’s feelings about the sacrifices it is making for the sake of export, and the growing official recognition in .the British Commonwealth of the importance of trade in books. We saw Mr. Harrap in his hotel. He took off his coat and sat on the bed, and began to say just what he thought about New Zealand’s three per cent primage on imported books: "A Tax on Knowledge" "Call it primage or any other name you like, it’s still a tax on knowledge. It’s more like five per cent by the time it reaches the buyer. And you also have a quota system which restricts the importation of books and tends to make a bookseller concentrate on the quick-sell-ing stuff. New Zealand is the country that was noted for having the highest consumption of reading matter in the British Commonwealth, and yet it also has the distinction of being the only one to put a tax on the importation of books from its sister nations.* "Governments in the Empire generally have not readily recognised the importance of the book in the modern world. But look at other countries. One of the first things the Nazis did was to burn the books they didn’t want the German youth to see. MRussia’s publishing is entirely State controlled, and the Soviet goes to great lengths to circulate its own books outside the U.S.S.R., and I think it would be very difficult indeed to get any books not produced under their control into the country. In China, books are produced in enormous quantities and very cheaply. America, with its quick perception of realities; has seen the value of books, and is eager to send them out through normal trade channels so as to make other people familiar with America." Books as Ambassadors "Ts the export of books officially looked on as a very important part of Britain’s drive for export markets now?"

"Yes, it is now, Not for its magnitude, but for its effect. The financial value of Britain’s book exports would probably not give them a high priority. But their potential value does. Yet the British Commonwealth Governments have been slow to recognise the need for thisor rather to act as if they recognised it. In the past we have succeeded in persuading individuals of the importance of keeping men in_ the printing and bookbinding trades so as not to lose the export market, but we couldn’t persuade Governments as/‘a whole. We could not retain enough labour, and recognition came too late. Even now, there is no nmrioritv for the release

the forces-demobilisation is being done on the points system, and so there are not enough men back at work to start building up the trade quickly. The demand vastly exceeds the manufacturing potentiality. "Actually, the trade can blame itself to some extent. We were all dumb. Book sales fell right off when the war began, and they didn’t start to revive again until 1942. And we didn’t see that a revival was inevitable. Employers let men go, and were rather glad to be free of responsibility for them when they didn’t have enough work for them to do. Then the recovery Game on with a rush, the works were all swamped, and they’re still swamped. ' "Some publishers will be able to get back to normal more quickly than others, Oxford, for instance, have their own wonderful press, which was kept intact and used by the Government through the

war for security printing. I gather from people in the trade here that the Oxford University Press has led them to expect normal conditions within about 18 months. That doesn’t go for the whole publishing trade. Other publishers will take longer to get back into full production." Does the Englishman Mind? "Do you think the British book-buy-ing public resents being unable to buy what it wants? When a Londoner wants to buy a new book and can’t get it, and knows the same book is probably easy to get in Australia or New Zealand, does he make a fuss? "No, I don’t think there’s any resentment at all. We’ve all been made fully conscious of the absolute necessity of giving up the things we make ourselves, and want to buy ourselves, for (continued on next page) 1

(continued from previous page) the sake of getting back the markets we gave up to fight the war. And, what is more, there is no resentment among the booksellers at all, though it has been done at their expense, and the publishers are cutting down their supplies in favour of export. I have heard no complaint from them." "Tt’s true then, as we’ve been told, that our own shops here are much better stocked than English bookshops?" "Absolutely true. A regular customer at a London shop feels he is lucky if his bookseller tells him that such and such a_book is just in, and gives him a copy from under the counter. Three or four copies of the same book might lie on the counter here in New Zealand for some time." Five Years To Go "How about the paper supplies?" ""They’ve just been increased. The allowance for the present four-monthly period-March, April, May, June-is 75 per cent of what. we were getting in 1939, and there is a special extra 10 per cent for export... "I foresee a colossal demand for print of all kinds accompanying the revival of industry and trade’in Britain. Every industry must use printing in some wey, especially if it is expanding. Think of all the technical things that need printing, all the catalogues, leaflets, price lists, and so on. Even cars-a book of instructions (sometimes with about 200 pages in it) goes with a car. As trade recovers, this demand will be competing with the demands of publishers for the services of the printing trade. When the present restrictions on printed advertising matter go, it will be very much harder for publishers who don’t employ their own printers-my own firm, for instance, doesn’t have its own press in Britain, though it has one in Australia. I estimate that it will be five years before everyone can buy all the books he wants." *At the meeting of the Booksellers’ Association the day after we saw Mr. rege Mr. Nash offered to take off the three cent. primage duty if the booksellers ea of reduce prices by five per cent. ’