THE PICTURESQUE ATLAS OF AUSTRALASIA

Turnbull Library Record, Volume VII, 1 June 1947, Page 11

THE PICTURESQUE ATLAS OF AUSTRALASIA

C.R.H.T.

A Dog With a Bad Name

This mighty work in three, generally handsomely bound, volumes is well known to those versed in New Zealand books. But strange it is that despite the magnificence of its production, the accuracy and scope of its contents/ vouched for by Dr Hocken’s Bibliography (‘ a magnificent volume, with splendid Illustrations and rare portraits ’), it has never enjoyed a price on the New Zealand market to accord with these qualities. There is a good reason, which carries its effects to the present day. It is worth while to tell the story in some fullness.

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia was edited by Dr Andrew Garran, and published in 1886 by the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company of Sydney. Dr Garran, whose name had formerly been Gammon, had a distinguished career in Australia. Born in London in 1825, he took an M.A. degree in 1848, and went to Australia in 1851. After varied journalistic work he found himself at the height of his profession as editor of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1873. In 1870 he had taken the degree of LL.D. at Sydney, a qualification that served him well in the newspaper and political world. Quitting the former in 1885 he entered politics in 1887. Thus the ‘Atlas’ was the child of these two years of relative inactivity. He achieved eminence rapidly. becoming president of the Royal Commission on Strikes in 1890, whose report resulted in the Trades Disputes Con-

ciliation and Arbitration Act of 1892. He enjoyed other important appointments of political significance, and was held in high esteem by Sir Henry Parkes, as evidenced in his Fifty Years of Australian History.

he work therefore was the product of a scholar and a well-equipped writer. It was well provided with illustrations and coloured maps. Actually it sold well, probably in Australia better than in New Zealand, which received attention in only half of volume 2 of the work. It was issued in 42 separate parts, which are still to be seen at times.

In New Zealand it was retailed by the Otago firm of Bowerman & Co., who employed a team of travelling salesmen. Purchasers saw specimen parts and signed a contract to have the work supplied. The material part of this con tract read: Please deliver to my address as given below, the work entitled Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, in forty-two parts (paper covers) for which I agree to pay you or your authorised agent 5s for each part when delivered at my residence or place of business, each part to contain from twelve to 20 pages. The publishers on their part agree to begin the delivery of the above-mentioned work during the year 1889, or the following year, and will complete the delivery of the series as soon after publication as possible ... It is also expressly understood by each subscriber that the non-delivery of the publication at any specified date shall in nowise release the said subscriber from the above obligation. Subscriptions received only for the entire work, no agent being authorised to change the terms of this agreement, to give credit,, to receive pay in advance or to contract any liability for the publishers. It is likely that New Zealand sales were in the nature of

dumping,, though no abatement of the price was made. They appear to have started selling here in 1886, as indicated in such cases as follow. The price was five shillings per part, and the common impression seems to have been that parts would be delivered periodically, if not monthly. This did not eventuate, and purchasers, finding themselves embarrassed with heavy accounts, made trouble that had far-reach-ing effects.

These were difficult years in New Zealand, when the economic position, following Vogel’s boom of the ’seventies reached as low an ebb as the country has known. The rural communities in particular were affected, and they were the market that had bought readily the imposing volumes of the Picturesque Atlas. Many quailed at such an expense, but the contract had no loophole. Bowerman pressed for payment, and generally magistrates could do no other than sustain their claim.

Some of these cases are interesting. In Invercargill the Resident Magistrate gave a decision against the vendors (Bowerman) 1 on the grounds that oral evidence to the effect that the Picturesque Atlas was to be delivered monthly, was admissible, and that as these terms had not been followed, the contract was not binding. On appeal, however, this ruling was reversed by Sir Robert Stout, who pointed out that the contract stated specifically that the conditions could not be altered by an agent.

On another occasion the purchaser took delivery of four parts in 1888, and the bulk of the rest followed in one lump three years later. In his understandable exasperation he refused delivery, and an interesting altercation can be imagined before the agent left his undoubtedly heavy load (a full set weighs 34 lbs) at the gate. Again in the lower court the purchaser won his case, but again on appeal the Supreme Court gave for the vendors.

One purchaser endeavoured to evade his obligations by refusing to accept delivery since one part was duplicated and another lacking. Once more the Justices’ finding for the defendant was altered by the judge, with stinging criticism of ‘ the incompetence of the Justices in the court below ’. 2

A case where the two courts agreed was when a purchaser, who had returned 14 parts objecting that monthly delivery had not been made, was required to accept them, but on an amended value.

In only one case is a favourable decision recorded for the purchaser. He had signed the contract in 1886, and as no copies of the book were delivered till 1891, the court held that the contract had been abandoned when payment and acceptance were refused.

What must constitute almost a unique procedure as a cautionary measure on the part of the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company was the issue, in 1891, of a twelve-page folio brochure citing in some detail a number of prosecutions in Australia and New Zealand against delinquent subscribers. It is surely a coincidence that this publication, till now apparently unknown to New Zealand bibliography, should have come into the library just as this article was being completed. Though I have handled very many copies of the Picturesque Atlas, this minatory addendum I had not met before.

But these cases that came to the courts were few compared with those that found it preferable, to swallow a bitter pill. They paid up, but endeavouring to convert such an expensive asset to specie again, found the book market glutted with the commodity. It has not yet recovered: the reason has been forgotten, and it is only remembered that it is an item that the market does not want. Today, an age when smaller houses do not have space for tall heavy volumes, the market is still unkindly, so that any time in these last thirty years a lucky purchaser could buy the three often splendidly bound volumes for anything from half-a-crown to half-a-guinea.

But in July, 1891, George Fisher, member of Parliament for Wellington City, asked a question in the House as ‘ to whether Government would take charge of the Book Purchasers’ Protection Bill ’. 3

‘Large numbers of people he said, throughout the Otago and Canterbury Provincial Districts had been victimized by these book vampires. When these poor people came into court, they found themselves committed to a contract, innocent enough on the face of it, but so craftily drawn as to commit them to financial obligations which

they could never possibly meet. The magistrates in every case that had been tried, had said, that, although they sympathized very much with the people who had been deceived, they had no alternative but to give judgment for the plaintiffs ’.

It was obvious that considerable activity had been going on behind the scenes, for Fisher to be ready with a private bill. At this time he was an experienced parliamentarian, with a background as printer, journalist and Hansard reporter. He had been mayor of Wellington for three years, in Parliament for seven, and Minister of Education in the Atkinson Ministry. He was a fine and vigorous speaker, and showed his bookish interests by promoting the erection of the Wellington Public Library.

A week later the second reading of the Bill was moved by Fisher, who received support from most members. Only W. F. Buckland, member for Manakau, a lawyer in practice for many years in Cambridge, and who introduced the satirical Washers’ and Manglers’ Bill in Parliament in 1892, spoke against it, though he apparently voted for it. It was suggested by another member that this opinion reflected the profitable business that the cases brought to the legal profession.

Thus in due course the Bill became law. Its essential provisions were that a duplicate of the agreement was to be supplied to the purchaser of books under such circumstances and that the words ‘ The total liability of the purchaser under this agreement is should be printed in large red capitals as a background to the text in black ink ’.

This act became incorporated in the Mercantile Law Act (Part IV) in the 1908 consolidation, and still remains operative today. It is, incidentally, the writer’s experience that some sellers of books on such terms do not fully comply with these provisions, but the protection enjoyed by book purchasers today owes an appreciable debt to the unappreciated tomes of The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. In conclusion, the writer takes pleasure in acknowledging valuable assistance from Mr A. E. Currie of the Crown Law

Office, in the preparation of these notes.

1 9 N Z L R p. 157, 1891. 10 ibid. p. 60, 1893. 2 11 ibid. p. 392, 1893. 11 ibid. p. 358, 1891. 10 ibid. p. 348, 1891.

3 Hansard vol. 72 p. 252, 488-90.