700 Unsold Copies Of Historical Work

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 1

700 Unsold Copies Of Historical Work

After spending more than £lO,OOO in publishing 1000 copies of the historical work, “The Richmond-Atkinson Papers,” the Government had 700 copies unsold two years after publication, said the Ombudsman (Sir Guy Powles) in his annual report.

Sir Guy Powles investigated a report by the author, Dr. G. H. Scholefield, that inadequate steps had been taken to bring the publication to the notice of the public and interested bodies in New Zealand and overseas.

Having regar 1 to the nature of the work, the time, money and labour that had been expended on the publication and the likely appeal of the work to the serious general reader, as well as the historian, the decision to restrict the number of review copies to two, only one of which was made available within New Zealand, was unreasonable, Sir Guy Powles said.

His' report, which does not give the name of the author, said an investigation showed that editing and publishing the work had extended over some 10 years and involved spending more than £lO,OOO of public money. A Government subsidy of £3OOO was made, but it was intended that the balance should be recovered from the sale of copies of the work. This was being undertaken by the Government Printer as publisher Sir Guy Powles says that during his investigation the author’s health began to fail, and he died before he could inform him of his conclusion “In view of the fact that it was two years since the work had been published, I recognised that it might now be

difficult to persuade suitable journals to undertake the considered reviews which the nature of the work would require,” he says. “I accepted, therefore, the offer of the Government Printing Office and the Department of Internal Affairs to promote more energetically than hitherto the sales of the work in an endeavour to reduce the unsold copies below the figure of approximately 700 which then remained from the original printing of 1000 copies.”