A.—4

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was made responsible for its expenditure, economy would result, as it is asserted to have resulted in South Australia, where it has been tried. 3. I would also call special attention to the practice in Queensland as to the publication of Hansard. It might be impossible in this colony, where the sittings of the House are sometimes protracted to a late hour, to distribute the sheets by the next morning, but that could be effected in many cases, and in all cases it could be done by the following morning The cost would be somewhat greater than at present, but the result would be that many thousand copies of the debates would be distributed throughout the colony almost concurrently with the debates, instead of as at present very few copies only, a long time after all interest in the proceedings had died away At all events I would submit the experiment would be worth while trying for one or two sessions. 4. As a matter of detail the docket system of South Australia, by which the whole cost of every job is entered on one document as it passes from hand to hand through the department, is deserving of imitation. The following table, compiled from the estimates of the several colonies, shows the cost of the Government Printing Office in each : —

VII. Stamps. The Stamp Act in New South Wales is administered by a Commissioner, who is not a Minister; there are no Deputy Commissioners. It is the duty of the Commissioner to decide the amount of duty payable on any document, but an appeal lies from the decision of the Commissioner to the Minister charged with the administration of the Act, and from the Minister to a Judge of the Supreme Court. The Commissioner has power to remit any fines incurred under the Act for unstamped instruments. The Audit Office has no power to revise the decision of the Commissioners as to the stamp duty on deeds : it does not see the deeds or any memorial of them, and is compelled to accept the decision of the Commissioner as final. All impressed stamps are affixed in the stamping-room, which is within and open to the Commissioner's office, so that all stamps are impressed under his personal inspection. All the dies are kept in his own safe, and are handed out every day as required, and returned to him every evening. The adhesive stamps are printed by the Government Printer as required by the Commissioner, who keeps the stock in the safe in his office. The duty of the Audit Office is confined to seeing that the revenue as stated in the Commissioner's returns has been paid into the Public Account. The stamps are issued from the Commissioner's office to the distributers, who are remunerated by a commission on sales; and full accounts are kept in the Commissioner's office against each distributer, showing the stocks in hand. Returns are rendered by the Commissioner to the Treasury and the Audit as well as by the distributers, but tho A.udit is compelled to rely on the certificates of the distributers as to the truth of their accounts. The Treasury however has the means of verifying the returns of the distributers by the reports of its inspecting officers.

New South Wales.

Colony. Year. Salaries and Wages. Keporting, &c. Stores, &o. Total. few South Walea 1880 £ s. d. 38,818 0 0 £ s. d. 2,500 0 0 £ s. d. All stationery supplied from General Store 800 0 0 11,462 0 0 6,270 0 0 5,807 10 0 £ s. d. 42,118 0 0 Victoria Queensland ... South Australia 1880-81 1880-81 1880-81 28,215 0 0 13,762 0 0 13,526 0 0 1,988 0 0 1,574 0 0 Hansard taken from report of daily papers No Hansard 2,500 0 0 41,665 0 0 21,606 0 0 19,333 10 0 Tasmania few Zealand 1880 1880-81 4,015 0 0 14,252 10 0 1,357 0 0 13,000 0 0 5,372 0 0 29,752 10 0