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such matter, and it does not matter whether the compositor is acquainted with the particular work or not: his work is checked by the supervisor and the reader. 12. They are employed in your office on ordinary work?— There is not sufficient scientific work done to keep them at that alone. 13. Would there not be if all scientific matter were brought under one head? —No. 14. Mr. Bussell.] You recognize that it would be a tremendous advantage to the country in the distribution of literature in other parts of the world if we had a standard form like royal octavo? —No doubt. 15. The people would then have this matter in uniform size collected in the libraries, and it would-be an advantage to exchange with other countries? —Yes. 16. You are aware that the form in which our work appears is rather unfair to the libraries? —Yes. 17. To my mind, it is not so much the printing as the binding, and 1 would like you to give the Committee your idea of the matter. Do you think it would be practicable, in order to cheapen the cost, if we were to issue this material in stiff paper covers, and then leave those who take them up to bind them themselves? What proportion do you think that would reduce the cost by : supposing you take a royal octavo of, say, 500 pages and you bind it in cloth, what increase would the cost of binding in cloth be over and above the paper? —The cost would run to about ss. a volume 18. For each copy? —It depends upon the amount of tooling and finishing. 19. Suppose it was done With block binding , and there was no attempt made to put anything in gold letters —or even with paper slips gummed on ? —Our publications are issued now in the form you mention. Take the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute." The majority of the volumes of the Transactions are issued simply with paper covers. A certain number are bound, but a very small number. 20. Now, that is just my point : do you think it would be practicable for the Government to simply have a small number of the copies bound —that is, for those on record in the Department and those for record in the library—and then send the publications to members of Parliament and others in paper covers, and let them take the responsibility of binding them if they thought them of sufficient value? —There would be a considerable saving in that, of course. 21. A tremendous saving if you take it at ss. a book. As a matter of fact, if you have 1,000 copies the binding of them would cost quite as much as for printing the whole thing?— .lust about it. 22. That is the point 1 wish to emphasize : we can get the advantage of this without the heavy cost which would be incurred by the Government in the binding. For instance, Christchurch and other places ought to have the responsibility of binding the books if we give them the matter? —They do that now. We do not supply bound copies of the Appendices or Hansard. 23. There is only one question-involved, and that is the publication of the maps and pictures that frequently accompany the books. Of course, you are able to do that in the larger size; but do you think it would be practicable to issue the literary part of these publications without the maps and pictures, and by a reference state that they could be obtained separately?— That could be done, certainly; but these maps particularly are so frequently referred to in the text that the letterpress would be of very little use without them. 24. With regard to putting on a separate staff for scientific work, your answer is that the whole of the staff has to be under one control so that they can be used for any emergency?— Yes. 25. And you could not set aside a particular part of the staff for that particular purpose? —That is so. Chakles Edwakd Adams, M.Sc, F.R.A.S., Government Astronomer, Secretary to the Surveyors' Board, and Chief Computer of the Lands and Survey Department, examined. (No. 4.) 1. The Chairman. ] You desire to give some information in connection with State scientific publications? —Yes; I just wish to put in a few papers. I have brought up for the use of the Committee a set of the scientific publications of the Lands and Survey Department, which I can leave with the Committee if necessary. They are all published in the one size—the foolscap. This is the annual report [produced]. The Appendices are of a technical nature covering a variety of subjects. There is one on the Magnetic Observatory and Magnetic Survey Branch at Christchurch, but this does not include the seismological. records of Mr. Hogben at Wellington, which are published sometimes in the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," but only occasionally, as they are not regularly published by it. 2. Can you tell me where Mr. Hogben's records go?—No, as this Department has nothing to do with their observations. • 3. They are published outside New Zealand? —Mr. Hogben told me that he has sent them away, and that is one point where a Board would straighten up matters. The size of the foolscap reports is very inconvenient. It is quite unusual to have scientific books printed in foolscap size. We publish besides a report on the measurement of the base lines in New Zealand, with a view to the reobservation of our triangulation, and that is a very valuable report which we send to all interested surveyors. It is in very great demand outside New Zealand. We publish another technical appendix in connection with the mathematical adjustment of the triangulation, which forms part of the work of the Department, and is now being carried out by trained officers. We publish another report on the Surveyors' Board which conducts the examination of surveyors in New Zealand in conjunction with the Australian Surveyors' Board; whilst Appendix V relates to the tidal survey, which has been recently established in New Zealand, and gives the results of the analyses of the tide records of the ports of New Zealand, and also the predictions of the tides, which are republished in the British Admiralty time-tables and also in the " New Zealand