Errors not checked

Press, 7 December 1976, Page 1

Errors not checked

The New Zealand consultant for the Sydney firm which published the “Australia New Zealand Encylopaedia,” Dr J. D. S. McKenzie, who is the senior lecturer in education at Otago University, said he was merely consulted about the contents of the encyclopaedia, and did not check any of the final proofs of the New Zealand articles. Dr McKenzie said he probably received more than 100 articles during 1974, all of which were first drafts. “Some of the drafts had no errors, others were full of them,” he said. Dr McKenzie said he could not remember any

particular errors he had corrected on the initial proofs, and he said it was difficult to recognise any of the final articles from the drafts he had corrected. “I did the work more than two years ago, and I kept no records of it,” he said. Dr McKenzie was put in touch with the publishers, Bay Books, of Sydney, through Australian academic contacts. “I had seen a children’s science encyclopaedia published by the firm, and was quite impressed with it. This new encyclopaedia seemed a worth-while venture, and it still is, but I agree that the ’Consumer’

criticism is fair comment,” he said. “My job was that of a consultant. I was to give my opinion on the content of the encyclopaedia, and my interpretation of points of history which were disputed by contributors.” Dr McKenzie said he did not remember having seen any of the proofs for the articles which contained the mistakes reported by “Consumer.” _ “I certainly would have picked up such obvious mistakes,” he said. “All I can think is that the publishers were rushed, and material was put through that had not been checked properly.”