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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10882, 27 June 1899, Page 3

Dear Sir, —In conjunction, with Mr E. J. Forbes, the Australasian representative, and Mr G. C. Hunt, his Canterbury agent, we are interesting ourselves on behalf of the publishers in the introduction of their Australasian edition of Webster's International Dictionary, a book that has been fittingly described as a crowning triumph of the century's literature. It has been a most difficult task to get such a work properly represented in the#many important centres of population throughout the colony. This has, however, been happily accomplished, and by literary men in this community, who not only obtain customers, but also secure friends whoae good opinion of the work is of the highest possible value. It is therefore hoped that when an opportunity presents itself you will give a few moments to the careful examination of the volume. The paper, printing! binding arid type, leave.nothing to be desirijd,. .everything thai ingenuity could do to serve the convenience of the reader and to aid rapid reference has been done. Yours faithfully, SIMPSON and WILLIAMS, LIMITED. (Enclosure.) Iα October 1892, we received a letter from Messrs George Bell and Sons, London, of which the following ia a copy: — Dear Sirs, —We beg to inform you that we have ceased to supply Webster's International • Dictionary to Australia, Kew Zealand and Tasmania, and that on and after the receipt of this notice your orders for the said Dictionary should be addressed to the publishers, Messrs It. and C. .Merrian Co:, Springfield, Mass., or to agents appointed by them. On several occasions since that date we have been advised.(l) That Messrs George Bell and Sons published in 1891 a reprint of Webster's International Dictionary under - contract with G. and C. Merrian Co., the publishers of the revised edition; (2) that the catalogued published prices were as follows:—3ls 6d, 425, 455, 48s, 525, 58s, 635, 70s, 77s 6d; (3) that this English edition was only for circulation in England and India, and could not be exported to New Zealand with the knowledge of the publishers or the trade. Having been so advised, we have had no desire to resort to the means and methods necessary to obtain this reprint, nor .would a reprint printed as late as" 1893 or 1895 be acceptable to us as the latest English edition. Our trade demands that we should stock the latest and the best. We offer the authorised edition, lately published by G. and C. Merrian. Co., the copyright of which was registered at Stationers' Hall, England, during 1898, the book advertised and the book the people of Canterbury will expect to receive.