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4. Does anybody exercise any supervision over documents of your own? Are they held over at all? —They usually remain in the Under-Secretary's office for some length of time, and finally reach the Government Printer, and it may be some time before the Government Printer sets them up in type. Of course, there are considerable and often very aggravating delays in the printing of these publications. We often receive them at irregular intervals and at very inconvenient times; for instance, 1 may be away in the field. 5. But you alone are responsible for .the material put forth in your bulletins—the report, of course, is a different thing? —-Yes. 6. What form, do these bulletins take? What do they refer to as distinguished from the report?-—The annual report is simply an account of the year's work. Very few geological particulars are given in the annual report. The bulletins are reports on various areas of a few hundred square miles. They are accompanied by elaborate maps, and are intended to be so complete that it will not be necessary again to go over these areas in any detail. It will be necessary to do fresh work only as fresh discoveries are made. 7. Mr. Sidey.] Do you think it would be an advantage to have the information that is supplied by your Department published in a different way —say, in a separate pamphlet or book together with other scientific reports?—l think it would be a good thing to have a uniform system of publication —a uniform-sized publication. 8. It has been suggested that sometimes there are important matters referred to in annual reports that are lost sight of? — I do not think we lose sight of anything important. 9. 1 mean, the public generally?— That would go into the bulletin as a general rule. 10. Anything to which public attention should be directed is republished in the bulletin? —Yes. 11. J suppose there is as much public attention drawn to your special bulletins as there would be to any general publication?—l think so; but for reference puiposes it would be advisable to have a certain amount of uniformity in the scientific publications relating to New Zealand. 12. Mr. Russell. \ One of the things we want to do is to cut down the printing account. Do I understand that at the present time a lot of stuff coming from your office is printed twice over —in the Appendices and then in bulletin form? —Hardly, because our annual report is very brief. 13. What is the size of the bulletin I— Particulars about the Waihi District, for instance, would make a fairly long publication of a hundred or one hundred and fifty pages. The annual report is only fifteen or sixteen pages, and that would deal with several districts and with other matters. It is merely a summary of operations. 14. The bulletin consists only partly of what is printed in the Appendices of the House? — Yes. There is really very little repetition. John Mackay, Government Printer, examined. (No. 3.) 1. Tht Chairman.] There is one point I would like to ask you about : would printing these papers in uniform sizes, as you suggest in your report—in demy quarto and royal octavo —cause any difference in expense as compared with foolscap? Would it either cheapen or make the publications more expensive? —I do not think it would affect the cost to any extent. 2. Mr. Russell.] Neither one way or the other? —Neither one way or the other. 3. You would have a much greater number of pages in the make-up?— Yes. i. The Chairman.] What I mean is this : if you have a number of publications coming out in the two sizes as suggested instead of their being printed as now and scattered throughout other publications, would it make any difference in. cost to the general account? —It would be cheaper to issue them as now in foolscap folio form, but T have not considered that. In foolscap folio you get a larger page, and therefore a larger amount of matter in the page. 5. I mean, to take them out in the form they are now printed in order to make them accessible to general use. At present they are buried with other documents. If these are withdrawn from the present form of publication and brought out in one or other of the two sizes—demy quarto or royal octavo —would it make any difference in the cost?— Not a great deal. Octavo would be a little more costly. 6. Of course, you would have them issued in a form that could be bought?— They arc bought now. 7. You mention in your report that no other colony prints its papers in this form : but you know the publications of the "Smithsonian," of Washington? —Yes, but even their publications vary in size. 8. There are only two sizes, I think? —Yes. 9. But they bring out the different Departments such as Agricultural Chemistry, Forestry, Fisheries, Geological Surveys—they are all under the same form?— Yes. Is that Smithsonian a Government institution 1 10. Practically it is? —These are the two sizes that I recommend [produced]. This is royal octavo, and this is demy quarto. 11. I may explain that the New Zealand Institute selected royal octavo because the scientific societies at Home bring out all their publications in that form. Would it be possible to employ a portion of your staff regularly upon the bringing out of these scientific publications? T mean by that that it is desirable that scientific works should be produced by experts. It is not every printer that could set them up ?—Owing to the introduction of the type-setting machine the manuscript or copy has now to be prepared before it goes to the compositor. The men who prepare that manuscript are educated men who are preparing copy for the printers every day, and they do it in such a manner as to make it very clear to the compositor. Then, the reader who reads the matter after it is set up by the compositor is also a man who is accustomed to reading