N.Z. authors to seek library lending fees

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32629, 10 June 1971, Page 12

N.Z. authors to seek library lending fees

The economic situation of New Zealand writers beggers description, even though many of them have earned internation recognition and the work of some is studied in schools and universities, P.E.N., the writers organisation, h.as said in a statement on a survey of writers’ earnings.

The survey, conducted for P.E.N. by McNair Surveys, Ltd, of Australia, is preparatory work by P.E.N. for the establishment of a public lending right in New Zealand. Similar lending-right proposals are being made by writers’ organisations in Britain and Australia.

A public lending-right would be a system to compensate authors for the public circulation of books through lending libraries.

“Many hundreds of people may borrow a book for which the author receives only a single royalty,” the P.E.N. statement says. “It is wrong that the whole community should enjoy a library service by a system that helps impoverish its authors.” The average gross weekly eamings of the midway group of authors surveyed were $1.92 a week for all authors, 50c a week for those who had written from one to five books, and $8 a week for authors of six or more books, the McNair report said. All the earnings figures were for the years 1969 and 1970. On the same basis, the earnings of authors before tax but after deducting expenses such as stationery and research was 72c a week for all authors, 2c a week for those who had written one to five books, and $5.04 a week for those who had written six or more hooks.

In dealing with the earnings of authors, the McNair survey said it only needed three or four individuals with eamings far in excess of those of most authors to increase the arithmetical average to a figure well above the earnings of the median or midway group—and this had occurred.

“We would consider the median figures to be more representative of the majority of authors.” In its statement, P.E.N. said it was appropriate to quote from a similar study conducted in Britain in 1965: “The culture of a society may be partly assessed by the way its authors are treated.” Literature received only a small part of the Government allocation to the arts, the statement says. “It may be said that writers, although their earnings are below subsistence level, are forced to subsidise the rest of the community through the library system.” In the 1969-70 year, none World weather The world’s weather on Tuesday was: Rome, overcast, 61 degrees minimum, 75 degrees maximum; Paris, overcast, 56, 64; London, muggy, 56, 63; Berlin, sunny, 48, 75; Amsterdam, overcast, 50, 72; Brussels, overcast, 50, 69; Madrid, sunny, 54, 66; Moscow, sunny, 46, 61; Stockholm, fair, 48, 64; New York, cloudy, 66, 93; San Francisco, clear, 48, 57; Los Angeles, clear, 68, 73; Chicago, clear, 72, 88; Miami, rain, 79, 84; Tokyo, cloudy, 64,. 79; Hong Kong, overcast, 79, 84; Buenos Aires, rain, 46, 54; Rio de Janeiro, clear, 57, 79; Singapore, fair, 76, 89; Saigon, fair, 78, 91; Sydney, cloudy, 48, 66; Melbourne, rain, 53, 60.

of the $463,502 spent by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council was spent on literature. Drama received $104,519; music and dance $247,188; visual arts $30,051, and training awards and fellowships $29,197.

The nil expenditure on literature had been the case for every year of the arts council’s existence, P.E.N. says. But the council was set up ". . . to make accessible to the public of New Zealand all forms of artistic or cultural work.”

Support of literature had been left to the State Literary Fund, Which had only $10,200 a year available to it.

“The order of cultural priority established by the apportionment of Government funds to the arts treats writing almost contemptuously,” the statement says. “It may be asked whether this neglect is in accord with public taste and interest. Nearly all New Zealanders read New Zealand books. They have unlimited free access to these books through public, primary school, secondary school and university libraries. New Zealand books are, in fact, the mainstream of New Zealand culture.”

The call for a public lending right was a call for the State to correct an economic injustice by allowing authors their legitimate earning right, the statement says. It was not a request for Government subsidy. P.E.N. would ask the Government to establish a public lending right whereby an author was paid an annual “shelf fee” for every copy of his work held in a public or

school library. This should be paid by central Government.

"With the entire population served by the public or school library system, it seems sensible that central Government should act in the matter of compensatory payment to authors.” Authors did not wish the lending right to impair the free library system, because they believed libraries were the foundation of the cultural and educational life of the community, the statement says.