65

A.—4,

octavo volume and bound. The total cost is estimated at something over £6,000, and the receipts this year will probably amount to about £1,200. Apart from the question of cost, which is not excessive, this system has the advantage that a very wide circulation is given to the proceedings of Parliament all over the colony. The sheets are printed by means of an excellent four-feeding machine in a little over an hour. The Printing Office also sells Government printed papers, such as Gazettes, &c, to the public, collects the subscriptions to Hansard and the Gazette, and the moneys for advertisements in the Gazette. There are five branches —the store, the composing-rooms, the machine-room, the binding-room, and the publishing-room: to the latter is attached a public counter, at which papers are sold, and all moneys taken. Printing materials are supplied by a local contractor, and passed into the store, and are taken on charge in the stock-book, specifying the articles, without values, the entries being made from the contractor's invoices. The issues are entered from dockets sent down by the foreman of the room requiring the supplies, which are receipted by the man who takes away the goods, and initialled by the storeman who hands them out. The stock-book shows the stock on hand of every article at any time. The stock is carefully inspected and checked with the receipts .and issues every few months by an Audit Inspector, who counts every article and every sheet of paper. All Government printed forms are kept in and issued from the publishingroom, but they are not brought on charge, are issued free of cost, and are not audited or counted. A rough cash-book is kept in the publishing-room for all receipts taken over the counter, and, as money is frequently received by post, all letters are opened in the presence of two persons, and the contents of cash entered in a book kept for the purpose; all such receipts are acknowledged by a notice in the Government Gazette. The entries in these two books are then carried into the cash-book, which is discharged by payments into the "Printer's Collection Account" at the Bank, and by any small refunds he may have to make, to adjust errors in payments made to him. The total balance in the Collection Account is paid over to the Treasury monthly. The "Advertisement-book" is a record of all advertisements sent in by the public for publication in the Government Gazette, stating the number of insertions and the price, which has, in all cases, to be paid in advance. A " Register of Subscribers " to the Gazette states the period for which each subscriber has paid his subscription, which is always paid in advance. The " Hansard Register." The foreman of the machine-room marks off on one copy of the Hansard sheet every morning the number he has printed for each newspaper, and sends it to the Accountant. This register is entered under the name of each newspaper or subscriber, debiting each account with the number of copies supplied, and the price. The weekly totals of debit are carried into a book called the " Hansard Ledger," similarly arranged; where each account is discharged as it is paid. The subscription to Hansard in the sheets is ss. for the session, payable in advance. The "Monthly Abstract-book " shows all the moneys paid into the Printing Office under the separate headings of "Publications" and "Advertisements." It is totalled monthly, and is discharged by the payments into the Treasury. It balances with the cash-book. The staff of the Printing Office is paid in the same manner as all other departments, by an issue from the Treasury to the Government Printer, upon a schedule furnished by the latter; the money being accounted for periodically on the inspection of an Audit officer. 9—A. 4