Authors’ ‘derisory pension’

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 11

Authors’ ‘derisory pension’

New Zealand authors receive a “derisory pension” for the public’s free use of their books through the library system, according to Philip Temple. “Instead of the $1 that authors currently collect per library copy, they should be getting about $4.31 if you take inflation into account since the fund was introduced,” he says. “It was originally introduced as $l3l by the Kirk Labour Government and then reduced to $1 duisg the Muldoon years. Inflation

has since made that $1 worth even less to authors. As a new member of the New Zealand Authors Fund Advisory Committee I intend to raise this matter soon.”

Last year, the Government allocated an extra $50,000 into the authors’ fund, but the Department of Internal Affairs was still hard pressed to find enough money to cover even the $1 per copy to authors, Temple says. “Because the number of authors is slowly increasing, the extra

Government allocations will maintain only the present sla copy. In other countries, such as Australia and Canada, both the authors and the literary funds are much more helpful to each author. “I feel that one of the best ways to improve New Zealand writing is to bring back the authors’ fund to a realistic value. This would be more effective than even increasing the literary fund since the literary awards are subject to fashion, taste, and the predilections of the

judges.” The authors’ fund is more appropriate to New Zealand society and its political system, Temple says. “As it stands now it must be stifling the efforts of budding authors. A few years ago it used to be considered a significant part of an author’s income. “The author would be sure that the more books he produced the more he could rely on a significant income from them through the authors’ fund.”