PRINTER WHO WAS PRAISED BY PITT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 13

PRINTER WHO WAS PRAISED BY PITT

HANSARD'S CENTENARY On October 29, 1925, only a few months after he had retire,d full of years and honours, from the exacting post of printer of parliamentary debates, died Luke Hansard, a name very familiar in political circles even to-day, when it has actually long ceased to have any official connection with those arduous duties. Luke Hansard, the son of a Norwich tradesman, was apprenticed in his native town to Stephen White, master printer, says the “London Observer.” The young apprentice was a product of that old foundation, Boston Grammar School. For some years he cheefully went about his master’s business in several capacities of trust, until, tiring of the humdrum round and apparent lack of prospect, he took heart of grace and trudged to London with, it is said, the legendary guinea in his pocket. Arrived in the metropolis, he soon obtained work as journeyman compositor in the office of John Hughs, Great Turnstile, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he made the. acquaintance, among others, of Samu< 1 Johnson, who was pleased to commend the earnest young craftsman. In 1774, when only 22 year 3 of age, lie was taken into partnership by the astute Hughs, and given charge of the printing of the parliamentary debates, a contract carried out by this office. He bent his whole energies to the task, and many tributes to his painstaking and effiicent work have been left upon record. Probably that which pleased him most was Pitt’s compliment in the House to his quick and correct production of the Secret Committee’s Report on the French Revolution, the manuscript copy of which had only left the statesman’s hands 24 hours earlier. After the Act of Union in 1801. so heavy was the parliamentary business that he concentrated wholly upon that class of work. After his death his sons carried on the business for many years. They were assisted by a Government subsidy. In 1888 the publication was taken over by a limited company, the Hansard Publishing Union. Nowadays, although reference is still made familiarly to Hansard, the official reI porting staff are in Government employ. Luke Hansard is not without honour in other spheres of printing. Ho | was praised by Person as he “best English printer of Greek.” He was also concerned in the printing of several famous works, notably Burke’s Essays on the Sublime and Beautiful and on the French Revolution, Orme’s “History of India,” and the notorious work by Harris entitled, “Hermes.”