STATE PRINTING

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 301, 20 September 1928, Page 13

STATE PRINTING

NO MONOPOLY TO BE GIVEN REGARD FOR PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ANNOUNCEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER Tliat it was not the intention of the Government to give the Government Printer a monopoly of State printing, and that regard must be had to the economic necessity of keeping the equipment and personnel of the privatelyowned printing establishments at work, were points emphasised by tlie Prime Minister (Right Hon. J. G. Coates) in the House of Representatives yesterday. Presentation of the annual report on the Government Printing Office saw members of the Labour Party ready with a number of publicity and departmental journals to use as the material for charges that the Government had gone past the State Printing Office, and had given I lie work to private firms. Their view, as expressed by a number of members, was that all the’ Government printing should done at the State office, and that, if it was found necessary, the equipment of that establishment should be added to to enable it to cope with the work. Kights of Citizens. The Prime Minister said that the question was a wide one. which demanded careful consideration. He was not going to lay down a policy, but be felt it. necessary to give his views on the subject. Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) : After consultation with the 192 S committee? The Prime Minister: Do you suggest that the 1928 committee should have its work done there? Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon) : It should be called the 182 S committee. It is a hundred years behind the times. The Prime Minister: That is a matter of opinion. My view is that citizens of New Zealand should be allowed to express their own views in their own time and in their own way. Line of Demarcation. Mr. Coates said that to meet all the printing requirements of the State it would be necessary to increase the capital anu personnel of the office, and he did not think that should be done. “We have to survey the position from wider aspects,” the Prime Minister continued. “We have in New Zealand sufficient printing plants to meet the requirements of nearly double the population. That is no exaggeration. It means that a great deal of that equipment is idle. If the Government increased the capital, equipment and personnel of the State office there would be an immediate effect on the equipment and personnel engaged in the other printing offices in the country. There is a line of demarcation which we ought to draw. It would never do to lay down that the Government must do all its own printing and go into active competition with the private printers. We have to realise the economic position. It would be wrong for the Government to go on irrespective of cost and ignore the efficient groups of printing houses, their equipment, the men engaged and the capital involved. The State office was always saying how it could do more and do it cheaper, but that is not the point. The office is primarily doing work for Parliament and for regular Government Departments. Mr. J. A. Lee: Even when it could do the work cheaper? The Prime Minister: Say the work could be done a little more cheaply by bringing all the work into one house. This Government does not intend to enter into active competition in that way. It is not for the Government to go along and destroy the private estabments because it wants one office that will do all work. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. H. E. Holland) : You are not suggesting are you that the Government work keeps the private offices going? Distributing Opportunities. The Prime Minister: No. There is only about £17,000 or £lB,OOO worth of work going out. I am not sure theie ought not to be more, especially when the printing trade is slack. It would be quite wrong in times of depression to switch over to the Government Printing Office and let the others starve. The Government has a wider responsibility than that. The Government is expected to be perfectly impartial and fair. Accentuation of difficulties only creates further difficulties, and whatever opportunities are offering should be spread around as evenly as possible. That appears to be the correct function of the Government. I disagree with any suggestion that all the Government printing should necessarily be done by the State office. “All that is necessary, I think, is that there should be sufficient staff to meet the printing'requirements of Parliament and to handle State documents which must be kept secret. The men in the State office are sworn to secrecy. There is sometimes a rush of work, but all that is required is sufficient men to meet the call, even if overtime is entailed. The idea is not to have a huge staff, and after the session of Parliament have to go outside for work to keep them going. The size of the staff should not be calculated on the peak loads of the. office.” It was not the intention of the Government to make a monopoly of State printing, not by any means, the Prime Minister concluded. He added that when the Government Printer took outside work he based his quotations on having to meet all the overhead, charges, of a commercial printing establishment in the way of rates, interest, etc.