Serious Leakage.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 839, 30 March 1888, Page 28

Serious Leakage.

It is not merely on the score of its heavy cost of construction that the needlessly vast magnitude of the new Government Printing Office is detrimental to economy. The most serious drawback is that the “ fatal facilities ” it will possess for unlimited printing

are almost certain to offer a constant temptation to reckless extravagance in this respect. No such temptation was needed. There is no department whose facilities are more widely and systematically abused than the Printing Office. It is hardly necessary to say that - we are not in any wav blaming Mr Didsbury for this. He has simply to obey the orders of his chiefs, and we have no reason to doubt that he manages the office as efficiently and economically as is consistent with the excessive demands made upon it by Governments and Parliaments, and by some heads of departments. It is by these that the waste is caused- And the waste is enormous, scandalous. Every session sees a shameful abuse of the power which Parliament possesses of ordering papers and other matter to be printed. We trust that the present Ministry will take the earliest opportunity of putting down their foot on this abuse. We trust also that they will themselves practice the utmost moderation in the appeals to their Government Printer. It lies with them to set a good example, and they can do a great deal also by consistently opposing all motions for printing which are not absolutely necessary in the public interests. Hansard, too, is quite need: iessly expensive in the extent to which its reports are carried. Very much less would be an ample record of the proceedings, and would give an abundantly sufficient account of members’ doings and sayings for the benefit of their constituents. These Parliamentary extravagances, however, are on the surface and open to the observation of everybody. The abuse, great as it is, is at least not a secret one. It is carried on in the face of the public, and the public, who pay the piper, can, if they choose, insist ou a stop being put to it. But there are other printing extravagances which are occurring, not merely during the session, but all the year round, day by day and hour by hour —extravagances which few people outside the “ Big Building ” know anything about, and which are therefore carried on without check or hindrance. For some of these successive Governments have been responsible: for others the blame rests with various beads of departments. It has hitherto been no uncommon thing for several copies of long documents to be printed for the consideration of Ministers when, save for the trifling inconvenience of having to ‘ read manuscript, a few copies taken in manifold or otherwise would have served equally well. Another fertile source of wasteful expenditure in the Printing Office is the issue of “ forms ” for the use of the various departments. That these printed forms are often treated as mere waste paper is notorious, and considerable economy might be effected by compelling a more careful use of what has cost public money to produce. But instances are not uncommon of wholesale waste on a gigantic scale. We know of cases in which an immense supply has been printed of certain forms —sufficient to last for years and years. On the job being completed and the forms sent in, it has been discovered that through somebody’s oversight an un important error has occurred, or a trivial blemish in the style of “get up” has been accidentally caused, or the paper is blue-laid- instead of creamlaid, or the officer who sent in the “ copy ” for printing has carelessly made a slight mistake in the wording or arrangement which he negligently omitted to notice in “ proof or perhaps he changes bis mind at the last moment as to some minor point in the wording or arrangement of the form ; or it suddenly strikes him, when he sees the finished work, that it would look better on blue-laid paper than on cream-laid, or vice versa. That is quite enough. Instantly the fiat of condemnation goes forth. The whole of these forms, printed at large expense on paper that; has been imported at heavy cost, are declared waste-paper, and have to be sold for what the material will fetch—usually a mere “ song ” —to be ground up in the paper-mills. This is no imaginary case. We repeat that it is within our direct knowledge that such things do happen not infrequently. Here, then, there is wide scope for sweeping economy. Let the present Ministry of Retrenchment look well into the matter; lettbem seethatthepast abuses continue no longer, that; the fatal facilities of the new office are not misused either by themselves or by their officers, or by their Parliamentary supporters. The quantity of printing aonually dooe by the Government Printing Office is altogether excessive

and hugely disproportionate to the real requirements of the public service. If the present Government do their duty, one of the most radical and sweeping reforms that they carry out will be in this direction.