CHEAPER SCHOOL BOOKS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1932, Page 8

CHEAPER SCHOOL BOOKS

PARENTS' DEMANDS.

SCHOOL COMMITTEES' VIEWS

QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT

The cost of school books was considered by the Education Board this morning, when letters protesting against the cost were received from the Auckland Primary School Committees' Association ana from the Bay of Plenty School Committees' Association. The matter is to be referred to the Department. A paragraph which had appeared in an Auckland newspaper had said that the printing of primary school text books had been carried out at a considerable saving in cost, compared with prices previously charged, stated a letter from the Auckland Master Printers' Association. "The effort of the association to reduce the price of books," the letter said, "was nullified by the publishers." In reply to a recent request from the Auckland Primary Schools' Committees' Association, the Printers' Association guaranteed a saving of at least 25 per cent to the parents if the Government prepared the manuscript, thus owning the copyright, and called for public tenders. The association was prepared to stand by that guarantee. The Primary Schools' Committees' Association, in a report, stated that the Government should own the copyright of primary school books, and the Education Department should supply the manuscript and call for public tenders. The manuscript should be compiled immediately. "Tho time has come when a united and combined move should bo made by all the primary sliools' associations in t'-e Dominion to bring before tho Government tho high cost of school books, and to ask them to endorse the report presented by the Primary Schools' Committees' Association, who ask that tho cost should be reduced by at least 25 per cent, and that a spccial Parliamentary committee should be set up." "This is a matter that we should further," nojoined Mr. G. E. Spooner. "The supply of the manuscript is the crux of the whole thing. If the Department wants to buy the copyright, well and good; but the public, in any case, should have the advantage of cheap books. Tho Minister should be asked to have the copyright prepared, and it should bo the property of the Government."