23

1.—5

one exception they are the same. There has been an alteration in the overseership of the binding branch. 390. Mr. J. B. Whyte.] I believe that in corrections there is room for adding very much to the cost ? —I have often found that to be the case. The percentage for corrections is very high, generally speaking, for work done in private offices. 391. In fact, it is a chance for making money which you cannot check?—Yes; for I very often do not see the revises. 392. Mr. Joyce.] Supposing the Government Brinting Office were abolished altogether tomorrow, what would be the immediate effect ? —The Government would be at the mercy of the contractors. 393. Would there require to be a department of supervision, and would it not involve the establishment of a new department ?—I can hardly say what it would involve. 394. Mr. J. B. Whyte.] In the event of a lot of the work being given out, would there be sufficient competition to keep down the price and prevent combination ?—I do not think so. To do the Government printing you require a special stock, which printers who are in the habit of working for commercial people do not keep on hand. If they went in for Government contracts, they would require to reorganize their offices to a great extent, and purchase material which they do not at present possess. For instance, I might cite the parliamentary bills. I have to keep a very large quantity of type standing for these during the whole session, because when once Bills are put in type they cannot be distributed until it is finally known whether they are passed or not. Bills have to be printed on very short notice, and altered as they pass through Committee, and from one House to the other. If they were not kept in type it would greatly impede the work of legislation. It would be impossible to do the work of the Legislature outside Wellington ; and to do that work you must have a very large establishment—a large staff of hands and a large office. The work could not be done with a smaller staff than I have at present, and it ought, properly speaking, to require a larger staff, because I consider the men are at present overworked. 395. The Chairman.] Some of the witnesses examined state that they think portions of the Government printing could with advantage be put out to private contract. Do you think they would be likely to select such work as the Begistrar-General's statistics ?—I do not think they would. 1 think it is a kind of work which commercial printers would, as a rule, jib at. 396. How many offices could turn out that kind of work? —There are very few which could do so. I called for tenders for printing the Domesday Book about twelve months ago, and asked them to state the number of pages they could produce a week, and an office like the Auckland Herald, which is one of the largest in the colony, undertook to do no more than twenty pages a week, and those only conditionally on the proofs being read in Auckland; while the Otago Daily Times and the Lyttelton Times, both large offices, only guaranteed to print twenty-four and twelve pages respectively per week : which proved to me that their offices were not equipped for doing tabular work. 397. Then, it would take them altogether about three or four months to turn out a work like the Begistrar-General's Statistics ?—Quite four months, I should think. The prices also for the Domesday Book were very high in most cases. They ranged from lis. 6d. per page up to as much as £1 7s. 6d., which latter was the price the Otago Daily Times offered to print it for. 398. Will you give the list of prices sent in by the different tenderers ?— Wellington —Lyon and Blair, lis. 6d.; New Zealand Times, lis. 6d. ; J. Hughes, 135.; Edwards and Green, 13s. Canterbury —C. Bedfern, 12s. ; Angus Turner, 12s. ; Willis and Martin, 15s. ; Lyttelton Times Company, 155.; J. Caygill and Co., £1 ; Daily Press Company, £1 ss. ; Whitcombe and Tombs, £1 4s. Otago— Fergusson and Mitchell, 14s. ; J. W. Jago (Evening Star), 14s. 6d.; Coulls, Culling, and Co., £1; J. Mackay, 18s. 6d.; Otago Daily Times, £1 7s. 6d. Auckland —Wilsons and Horton, 155.; W. Atkin, £1 3s. 6d. The actual cost of that portion of the work which was done at the Government Brinting Office did not exceed 10s. per page. 399. Some of the witnesses, Mr. Didsbury, selected this class of work [standard forms] as that which should be given out. Is this of a profitable character ?—-Yes, it is of a very profitable character. I should never think of giving out that class of work if we had appliances for doing it at the Government Printing Office. If I gave out any work at all, it would be of a solid description. 400. It was said that these forms could be done cheaply in private offices, because they could be done during slack times. Does not that apply to the Government Office ?—That is exactly the case with me. When there is no other work for the machines, I make up these forms, and keep them engaged. Besides, we have most of those forms stereotyped, and, once having set them up, all we have to do is to work them off as occasion requires. Now, a private printer would not have those conveniences. 401. Mr. J. B. Whyte.] Of course you have the appliances for four times the quantity of work that any office in either of the four big centres have ? —For special kinds of work we have ; such as for standard forms, &c. I possess facilities for printing that kind of work much cheaper than private offices, because, having the whole of the forms under my control, I can frequently print eight or nine at once, and thus effect a considerable saving in machine work. A private contractor would not, perhaps, bo able to do that. 402. Mr. Samuel.] Then these forms [standard forms] are about the last it would be advisable to give out ? —Yes ; about the last. 403. There would certainly be a large loss to the Government to do so ?—I should consider so. 404. The Chairman.] This question carries with it its own answer :If the Government work were tendered for in the provincial districts, it follows that the same forms would have to be set up in each district ?—Yes. 405. With regard to books, can you tell us whether the authors of books printed in your office derive any profit from that printing ?—ln regard to books like those on orange culture and