SCHOOL TEXT BOOKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 5

SCHOOL TEXT BOOKS.

"INEXPLICABLE SITUATION." MASTER PRINTERS' CRITICISM REPLY TO EDUCATION MINISTER. (By Telegraph.—rress Association.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. "In effect, the Minister has obtained one-half of the Jninimum reduction which should have applied, and has sacrificed the interests of parents by £31,430, or at the rate of £9356 per annum," asserts the Federation of Master Printers, in a statement issued to-day to refute remarks made by the Minister of Education, Mr. Masters, in the Legislative Council. The federation said that information placed at the disposal of the National Expenditure Commission and the Minister clearly showed that the books were 50 per cent too dear; that they could be produced in quantities of 25,000 —only a year's supply, as compared with the inestimable advantage to the present publishers attaching to a five-year or nine-year period—at prices warranting a reduction of 33 1-3 per cent, after allowing discounts of 25 per cent and 2J per cent to distributors. A definite guarantee was given by responsible and wellequipped printing houses to produce the books on that basis, and the definite opinion was expressed that under open tender conditions the prices would show a substantial reduction even on that figure. With a discount to distributors of only 15 per cent, as now obtained, the reduction would automatically extend to 43 per cent. It was emphasised that any extension of the contract would warrant an immediate reduction of not less than 35 per cent, still with discounts of 25 per cent and 2J per cent, so that with the present allowance of only 15 per cent the reduction effected could fairly have been 45 per cent.

Commission's Suggestion. "Obviously, it was upon this information furnished it that the National Expenditure Commission based its final recommendation, namely, an immediate reduction of at least 2.5 per cent, an extension of the publishing arrangement for three years, and the copyright then to revert to the Department upon payment of £;>00," says the federation. The figure of £5230 used by the Minister in all his utterances on the point as being the original cost of the manuscript is quite unjustified. It has been proved beyond question that £2000 at the outside would cover the cost of the manuscript. This cost would represent a mere 1 per cent of turnover during a five-year period, as against the tremendous saving which would be passed on to the public. "The Minister needs no proof of the value of competition. It is true that he has saved £2000, or 36 per cent on the printing of the school journal, and his unwillingness similarly to secure more equitable and more adequate savings on text books brings about a situation which not Bnly causes consternation, but which also is inexplicable. The present Minister has not been receptive of offers of information and assistance made him, and it is quite obvious that he lias been insufficiently informed by his Departmental officers, and is still not fully apprised of all the surrounding circumstances. Public Inquiry Urged. "When the time comes, as indeed in the public interest il must, for the setting up of an impartial tribunal for the purpose of holding an inquiry into all the circumstances of the text book question, it will doubtless be found that this federation can substantially illuminate very material features so far not touched upon in any quarter, which will be informative to the community generally and most probably to the Minister himself."