AN ATLAS ON A NOVEL PLAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8091, 20 April 1912, Page 10

AN ATLAS ON A NOVEL PLAN.

Ot atlases, of one sort or another, there is a good annual crop, but Philip’s ‘‘Chamber of Commerce Atlas” (London: Geo. Philip and Sou; Wellington; Whitcombs and Tombs, Ltd.) presents certain special and outstanding features which must distinctly commend it to busy commercial men, ‘The publishers have attempted to present in a graphic and, at tho same time, handy and Inexpensive form, an exhaustive summary of the present economic conditions-of tho globe. The work forms an epitome, as it were, of commercial information derived fiom the latest British and foreign sources, including Blue-Books, Trade and ConsuIr Betnrns, Steamship and Kailway Companies’ Time-Tables, which, are otherwise only available at a prohibitive cost, and after much research. In the various series of maps included in the work the more important phases of commercial development aro presented in a form which lends -itself to ready reference. The maps illustrate such important subjects ns Commercial Highways by land and sea, telegraphic and postal routes, fields for. emigration, tho areas affected by tropicjjl diseases, commercial languages, currencies, and tariffs. In a separate series of maps, tho sources of supply of the principal commodities and the direction of their exports are exhibited, coloured diagrams being employed to show the amount of production and consumption in various countries. In addition to the maps thero is a Commercial Compendium, dealing elaborately with tho source and nature of every commodity of commercial importance, a very complete series of- Supplementary Tables summarising tho trade of the World, together with other valuable statistical information <S£ commercial interest, and last, but certainly not least in interest and value, a Gazetteer-Index of C&M names. .Tho whole work has evidently been planned and carried out upon, an entirely novel and useful scheme, and tho more tho contents of tho volume aro studied the deeper will, bo tho satisfaction of the student with tho extraordinary wealth' of information. that is presented and with tho Strikingly original and attractive methods of its arrangement. This is a work which should find a place on the office table of every progressive business man. To journalists and politicians it should provo a perfect boon, and it is almost needless to say that a copy should be placed in tho lleference Department of every well-con-ducted public library. Considering the scope and extent of the work, its price (7s Gd) is exceedingly moderate.