History of Printing

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23767, 21 September 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

History of Printing

ANOTHER contribution to the permanent records of the Centennial has been made by the printing industry in the form of a sumptuous quarto volume entitled "History of Printing in New Zealand."

The idea originated in a suggestion from the Under-Secretary for Internal Affairs, Mr. J. W. Heenan, and was taken up by the Wellington Club of Printing Houge Craftsmen. The club received ready encouragement and practical help from all sections of the trade throughout the Dominion. Some 2o firms contributed work and materials to the volume —printing houses, process engravers, printers' merchants, paper importers, ink manufacturers and typefounders —and the make-up and printing of the letterpress were carried out voluntarily by members of the club in a Wellington printing-house that had generously been placed at their disposal. Except "for the paper, practically everything in the volume is New Zea-land-made.

The promoters of the scheme set out to make "the most beautiful book ever

The Industry in Neu) Zealand

published in this country," and with a good deal of justification they claim to have succeeded. The letterpress is a delight to read, and the title-pages, decorations and end-papers are a happy blend of art and craftsmanship. The 39 plates are admirable specimens of modern methods of pictorial reproduction, contributed by various printing houses.

The technical skill and scrupulous ,eare that are manifest in the dignity and embellishment of the volume unfortunately havo not been applied to the literary contents. Some of the contributions achieve high standards of matter and treatment; others are unworthy of a book claiming' a place in tho Centennial library. The compression into a single volume of developments during a century prevented any attempt to secure encyclopedic detail, but it should also have forbidden the use of much valuable space for banal trivialities.

Incidentally, the volume has been produced in the 500 th year since Gutenberg's invention of printing. It is ve,ry properly dedicated to the pioneer printers of New Zealand, and tho edition is limited to 600 numbered copies.