VALUABLE BOOKS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 8, 11 January 1943, Page 2

VALUABLE BOOKS

IN SALVAGE HEAPS

INSPECTION NECESSARY

(By McCLURE)

Since I wrote drawing attention to the senseless destruction of books under the Government's waste paper salvage scheme, striking confirmation of my contention has been published of the recognition by the British Government of the dangers inherent in any such scheme.

No less an authority than Britain's Minister of Supply has arranged that a panel of experts shall examine all books recovered in a new nationwide salvaged book campaign to ascertain which shall be classed as waste paper for repulping and which shall be retained for the use of the troops. In addition, a third category has been decided, consisting of books which may be of special interest "by reason of antiquity or rarity of content, including books which should be preserved in the national archives, books needed for restocking war-damaged libraries, and those which local library authorities may desire to purchase."

There you have a carefully planned salvage scheme, which is calculated to aid the war effort without destroying the priceless works of literature which, after all, are part of our very existence. Priceless First Editions In the last war no such scheme operated. At Walton-on-Thames, in close proximity to Mount Felix, the New Zealand Hospital, I was directed to "the wastepaper shop." There I found priceless first editions, many of them in full calf, all waiting to be railed to London to the wastepaper buyers for 2Jd a pound! I was told to help myself. Now, I ask you, what on earth could a hospital inmate do with them—any quantity of them?

Apart altogether, though, from collectors' items, I saw there heap upon heap of fascinating works, art magazines like the Studio and the Connoisseur, bound aged volumes of Punch, autographed editions of books long out of print, sporting prints, several volumes of Surtees', opera scores, pamphlets associated with early colonial administration, others containing really valuable old maps of New Zealand and Australia • —anything and everything one has ever seen on the shelves of our shops and libraries. To the dear old ladies who had volunteered to receive it, it was all "junk"—just that! Their job was to poke it into sacks between spells of afternoon tea and a gossip. What a tragedy!

This tragedy can be repeated here to-day in every wastepaper depot in the land. A friend from Wellington assured me that he personally observed at least half a dozen copies of Percy Smith's Polynesian Journal on top of one heap—but he had no legal right to touch them. They were wanted for repulping "because the war has cut short our supplies of wrapping paper." No Time to Lose Several years ago I acquired 144 copies of this same journal from a collection of "junk" sent into a local "jumble sale" held to collect funds for a local association. I had to pay for them, true enough (twopence a dozen) although the kindly old soul threw in a score of valuable New Zealand pamphlets with them as a make-weight. At the present time I doubt whether twice the price asked for the gross woujd purchase one copy. And such is the fate 6f many such priceless documents in these days of unplanned and often ignorant, if well-meaning, "salvage" schemes.

To-clay, lying in our wastepaper dumps, must be tens of thousands of illustrated periodicals, costly school and university text books, maps, steel engravings, art journals, valuable historical documents, printed matter unobtainable in our shops— all being baled! If these precious things are to be salvaged there is no time to lose. Already many hundreds of tons must have found their way to the pulp mills. Precions Wrapping Paper To-morrow's tripe may possibly be wrapped in what was once a Kilmar.noch edition of Burns—a first edition of Bracken—or Mr. Bob Semple's election harangue. On the other hand, one may have one's loaf wrapped in what was once the very school book some of you will—in a week or two—b£ searching the town for, and the dear old ladies who so frequently quote their Bibles would certainly be annoyed to know that their Chinese "vegie men" have just wrapped the cabbages they chose in what was once Moffat's edition of the New Testament. Yet those things can happen when any "wastepaper salvage scheme" gets under way. without plan, without provision for the wants of tomorrow—and without, as Britain's Minister of Supply has rightly ordered, a panel of experts to examine the so-called waste that is dumped into our depots. A sane Government scheme calls for this. Other features of such a scheme— such as the enlightenment of the public as to the costs of handling— labour, petrol, sacks and bales, rent of premises, railage, lighting, office and overhead, machines for baling and pressing, involved in any such scheme—with a little information as to the results obtained—financial and otherwise—l must leave untouched.