University of Virginia Library

2. Printing and Production

This section deals with printing and production in New Zealand between 1830 and the present day. After a brief general introduction, the subject is treated under four main divisions:

     Technology : the technology of printing, considered in terms of technical processes, equipment and materials
     Trade : the people whose skills created printed products of all kinds for the use of New Zealand society
     Economics and government regulation : the economics of printing and the impact of legislation and other government intervention
     Private printing : non-commercial and hobby printing

Under these broad headings will be found a number of particular topics as the subject requires.

     Some overlap with the section on publishing is inevitable, since some firms have carried out both printing (in all departments, including binding) and publishing, and often other functions as well, such as bookselling and stationery trading. Histories of newspapers and periodicals are to some extent also relevant to this section, because they include the histories of their production processes; moreover, the firms which have produced them have in most cases been involved concurrently in general and jobbing printing.

     The printing industry has always been subject to changes in technology and in ownership, yet up to a couple of decades ago the structural organisation of the print materials production industry remained relatively stable. However, from the 1970s onward the pace of change has hugely accelerated. Computerisation and the introduction of new categories of copying machines have not only brought major changes in the ways print materials can be produced, they have also made possible radical organisational changes. In the 1990s, while there are still some printing firms, especially in provincial towns, that continue to operate in terms of long-established modes of organisation, much of the kinds of work traditionally carried out by the printing industry is dispersed to typing/word processing businesses, copy centres using sophisticated photocopiers and laser print copiers, and stationery supply stores, operating as chains or buying associations. Moreover, for relatively small runs, many organisations that previously provided business for printers can now carry out 'desktop' print production in-house, using their own computers, scanners, high quality printers, and copiers. Any individual with access to such resources, and sufficient funds, can embark upon self-publishing. Some material is published electronically only, to be downloaded by individual users.

     Accordingly, the historiography of print materials production can be envisaged as, for the period up to the 1970s, largely a matter of identifying and describing relatively slow-changing technologies, and patterns of organisation of the printing and related trades, according particular attention to their initial establishment. While it has to recognise a period of substantial change within the period 1890 to 1914, with the introduction of hot-metal typesetting, photo-engraving, rotary presses for newspapers, offset presses, and electric power, together with major growth in worker and employer organisations, it should also stress the continuities throughout this period, and the decades of relative stability thereafter. Since about 1970, however, it has to accommodate accelerated technological change and structural diversification, and to acknowledge that these processes will doubtless continue to proliferate. It needs also to comprehend the recent consolidation of ownership of larger scale enterprises, and the opening up of the country, since the mid 1980s, to takeovers by overseas-based corporations.

     The New Zealand printing industry has always had to accommodate the pressures of competition from larger scale overseas enterprises. Before about 1938, the trade for books, specifically, within this country was heavily dominated by British publishers, so that relatively few were printed locally, and those mainly in niche areas (school books and readers, cookery, gardening, local histories, directories, official publications, and so forth). Helen M. Oliver in Printing and Publishing in New Zealand (1976) notes that, for the period prior to 1967, many New Zealand published books were printed in Australia because of the favourable exchange rate, and some were printed much further afield. In the last couple of decades, computerised technology, and the increasing globalisation, in diverse ways, of production, markets, and ownership of capital resources, have generated new kinds of pressures and complexities affecting the printing industry. Even when the composition process is carried out in New Zealand, presswork and binding may take place in Malaysia, Singapore or Hong Kong. In this kind of situation, the local work is generally done by trade typesetters rather than by printing firms.

     Shifts in the economics of print material production are thus of major importance, and involve not only factors within New Zealand but also exchange rates, relative wage and paper costs, the level of sophistication of offshore production facilities, international or bilateral trade agreements, and the policies of other governments.

     Historically, since 1900, the printing industry has been strongly affected by four major upheavals: the ongoing impact of the industrial relations and working conditions legislation of the earlier years of the 1890-1911 Liberal Government, principally the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894; World War I, with its shortages and challenges; the Depression of 1929-35; and World War II.

General studies

The technology of printing had to be imported into New Zealand, accompanied by the skilled operators. The central processes were, and are, composition (once involving literally the setting of type, but now, in the new technology, better described as keyboarding) and presswork (the multiplying of copies by means of machines, ever more sophisticated). Equipment and skills came directly from Europe, the birthplace of printing four centuries earlier, in particular from Great Britain, the colonial master, and also indirectly by way of Australia, the nearest colonial neighbour, and later on from North America. The nature and extent of these importations into New Zealand have yet to be studied in any extensive and systematic way.

     Of the relatively few scholarly studies of New Zealand print production, the majority have been directed to the 1840s and 1850s. For later periods, such historical studies, and overviews of contemporary situations, as have appeared, have mostly originated from within the trade itself.

     A.G. Bagnall's A Reference List of Books and other Publications associated with the New Zealand Centennial 1840-1940 (1942) identifies a significant number of historical surveys published about 1940 which have some relevance to this topic. They include special centennial numbers or supplements of many newspapers, local histories that would include information about newspaper and other printing, and, outstandingly, A History of Printing in New Zealand 1830 -1940 , ed. R.A. McKay (1940).

     This History contains 13 cogent essays, including two by the editor himself, and concludes with two lighter hearted pieces, and valuable biographies of some of the more prominent individuals of the trade, with details of the firms they were associated with. Andersen's essays on 'Early printing in New Zealand' and 'Maori printers and translators' remain useful, with later studies filling in further details. They are based upon Colenso's Fifty Years Ago in New Zealand , with additional material from the papers by T.M. Hocken ('The beginnings of literature in New Zealand: Part II') and Henry Hill ('Early printing in New Zealand') in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute . These sources retain some independent interest: Hill's paper, for example, includes a useful commentary upon Colenso's 'Day and Waste book' (now held in the Turnbull Library).

     McKay himself contributed 'Cavalcade of printing' and 'Process-engraving', and compiled the later, more anecdotal pieces. Tom L. Mills wrote about newspapers in 'The press: an historical survey', Kenneth McLean Baxter about 'The printing trade union' and E.W. Clarkson and L.J. Berry about 'Organisations of employers'. H.J. Tubbs contributed an essay of 'Stationery manufacture', W.B. Sutch an 'Economic survey', with accompanying graphs and tables of statistics, and Andersen a piece on 'The Maori alphabet', as well as collaborating with A.B. Clark on 'Our craftsmen go overseas, Great War 1914-18'. Sir Apirana Ngata wrote about 'The Maori and printed matter', and there is an essay compiled 'from official sources' on the 'Government Printing Office'.

     While most of these essays are relatively limited in the detail they provide, they remain sound introductions to their respective areas, and are often at their most valuable where the writers, a distinguished group, were working from firsthand knowledge. McKay himself merits respect as a man who had experience in all aspects of printing, in trade union leadership, and briefly in operating as a master printer himself, and who had devoted himself in the late 1930s to the study of the history of New Zealand printing—a true scholar-craftsman. The volume itself is elegantly produced by the standards of the time, and through its plates, most of which are unrelated to the text, served as a showcase for the skills of contemporary colour printers.

     Fiona Macmillan, in her 1969 booklet New Zealand for the 'Spread of Printing' series, made a noble effort at a survey, accurate as far as it goes but severely limited by the insufficiency of material to draw on. In 1950 the Federation of Master Printers of New Zealand included Early Printing in New Zealand in their series of booklets on the printing industry; this concentrated on the technology rather than the people. Most recently, Tolla Williment's 150 years of Printing in New Zealand (1985) is the first attempt by a single author to survey the field in its entirety, and it is a tolerable popular introduction with a slight bias towards the mission printing of the early years which was to be expected in view of its sponsorship by the Bible Society.

     Regional studies are scarce. Albert A. Smith's Printing in Canterbury (1953) is the only published work to attempt a complete chronological coverage, and for Otago, there is an unpublished typescript, 'Printing in Dunedin and Otago, 1847-1937' by Joseph Longhurst Gregory (died 1959), revised by R.V.S. Perry (1969), lodged in the Hocken Library. For Wellington, there are potted histories of firms in the Wellington province in the Centenary 1862-1962 publication of the Wellington branch of the Printing and Related Trades Union (1962). Hocken's notes in Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand (Otago Settlement) (1898) are the only substantial contribution to any general regional history, with the chronological restriction inevitable in the character of the work which contains it. Other early regional histories often include notes on the newspaper history of the region—an almost inevitable result of their compilation by journalists—but these are often not reliable.

     Recent more systematic scholarship is best represented by the theses of Patricia Burns ('The foundation of the New Zealand press', PhD, 1957) and Lishi Kwasitsu (published as Printing and the Book Trade in Early Nelson , 1996) and the work of K.A. Coleridge who has published several papers on the early Wellington trade. 'Printing and publishing in Wellington' (1986) and 'Thriving on impressions' in the 1990 essay collection The Making of Wellington 1800-1914 (eds. Hamer and Nicholls) cover different angles of what is the same general ground. The first of these was reprinted in Early Printing in New Zealand (1989), together with a more general survey paper by Roderick Cave and K.A. Coleridge, 'For Gospel and wool trade' (1985).

     Sources for historical studies are widely scattered. The primary documents are the products of the presses themselves, catalogued principally in the New Zealand National Bibliography to 1960 ed. A.G. Bagnall, the New Zealand National Bibliography (from 1966) and its online companion the New Zealand Bibliographic Network. The publications between 1961 and 1966 were catalogued in the 'Current national bibliography' (issued with Index to New Zealand Periodicals ). The more significant serial publications and journal articles for the earlier years were included by Hocken in his Bibliography of the Literature relating to New Zealand (1909), the most substantial of earlier attempts at a national bibliography. There is a nearly complete listing of New Zealand newspapers in D. Ross Harvey's Union List of Newspapers Preserved in Libraries (1987), and this is the only up-to-date and comprehensive guide, incorporating the locations of surviving copies.

     As a newspaper press was usually the first, and often the only, printing firm in any settlement, the newspaper history will be a significant source of local information on printing. Guy Scholefield's Newspapers in New Zealand (1958) is the only general survey of newspaper history, extending to the late 1940s. It outlines the history of the people and firms that produced these newspapers, as well as jobbing and general printing, and occasionally includes details about their equipment. It can be corrected on many points of detail, especially for some early titles with convoluted publishing histories, but provides a good general survey concentrating on the ownership and editorial history.

     Individual newspapers, usually in the main cities, and their owners have been the subject of several theses, most of which concentrate on the editorial history and the political relationships; and historical accounts of some newspapers have appeared in the journals published by local historical societies, and even more frequently in the newspaper itself if it has survived. Most local history journals have been indexed in Index to New Zealand Periodicals (1941-86), and more recently in Index New Zealand (1987-). The terms used are quite broad, and in the earlier title local history was often merely given a general reference such as 'Wanganui-History' for the entire periodical, so that the complete run must be searched. One separately published survey of local newspapers worthy of emulation is R.F. Johncock's Brief History of the Press: Napier and Hastings Newspapers (1991), which includes a section on the technology with illustrations which make it very useful. Frank Fyfe of Greytown was working (until his death in June 1997) on a book-length study of the history of the newspapers of the Wairarapa for the period 1874 to 1938, which was to include information about their presses and other equipment.

     Many newspaper firms, and other printing companies, have produced historical publications at the times of their own centennials, which provide useful information not only about themselves, but also about predecessor firms, and often about their relations with other firms in the same city. A notable example is Coulls Somerville Wilkie's history of its own development (probably by T.C. Coull), which includes much information about Dunedin printing in the 19th century; this was published in successive issues of its house journal Invicta News , in 1945-47, but the typescript version, in the company archives in the Hocken Library, is more inclusive.

     A valuable overview of printing technologies at a certain period was provided by George R. Hutcheson's H.B. & J.'s Handbook (1938). Oliver (1976) offered an overview for the early 1970s directed to production statistics, and economic issues. Oliver stressed the 'splintered' nature of the New Zealand printing industry, with an already relatively small market divided up between geographically dispersed printing firms.

     An annual overview of the general state of the printing industry was traditionally provided in presidential addresses to the conference of the national Master Printers' Federation. Between 1935 and 1951 these were published in its journal Printing Prestige . Brief reports on printing and publishing can be found in the annual editions of the New Zealand Official Yearbook , usually within the articles headed 'Publishing', and valuable statistics for printing and associated industries in the 'Manufacturing' section.

     The work of print material production in this country extends well beyond what can be found in the bibliographies mentioned above. Even for books and pamphlets, there are some categories of items of a modest nature for which Hocken, Bagnall and others would have included, at most, only the earliest printings. A good deal of the 'bread and butter' book work that has kept New Zealand printing houses busy was excluded by Bagnall, such as reprints of school books and cookery books. The latter deficiency is covered by Hugh Price's excellent bibliography School Books Published in New Zealand to 1960 (1992), covering the entire educational field. It is complemented by Ian McLaren's Whitcombe's Story Books: A Trans-Tasman Survey (1984), a scholarly study of a quite important area of printing and publishing. It is estimated that between 1908 and 1962 over 12 million copies were published of these supplementary readers, the majority of them produced in New Zealand by Whitcombe & Tombs's own printing works (its Melbourne and Sydney branches contracted out to local printers).

     There is, unfortunately, no complete listing of serial titles published in New Zealand, let alone a proper bibliography. Hocken (1909) lists the more important early titles, and others have been catalogued on the New Zealand Bibliographic Network, as new titles were added to the current National Bibliography. Current titles are recorded in the Index to New Zealand Periodicals and Index New Zealand . However, these recent sources can only be used to identify titles already known of through other sources.

     For non-book work, there are such sampling works as Ellen Ellis's The New Zealand Poster Book 1830-1940 (1977) and R.P. Hargreaves and T.J. Hearn's New Zealand in the Mid-Victorian Era: An Album of Contemporary Engravings (1977). However, many of these were not printed in New Zealand, as is true of most items listed in the comprehensive catalogue, E.M. and D.C. Ellis's Early Prints of New Zealand 1642-1875 (1978). On the other hand, The Postage Stamps of New Zealand (1938-), published by the Royal Philatelic Society, deals with issues that have been printed by the Government Printer, as well as with those contracted out to overseas specialists. There are the files of newspapers, and most notably their Christmas supplements, which for some decades were lavishly illustrated (often, also, containing loose colour plates), as showcases for the capabilities of their process departments. Typical of these are the 1936 issues of the Auckland Star's Brett's Christmas Annual , the Christchurch Press's New Zealand Illustrated , the Otago Daily Times & Otago Witness Christmas Annual , and, for the weeklies, the Weekly News Christmas Number and the New Zealand Free Lance Annual . There are also the files of magazines. From the 1950s onward, such journals as Printers'

News , The New Zealand Printer and Graphix have exemplified in their illustrations the processes they documented. There are collections of ephemera, such as the collections of printed music, and of theatre programmes, in the Turnbull, Hocken and Auckland Public Libraries.

     The records of individual printing or publishing houses (they were often the same institution in the period before about 1960) have survived only by chance in individual cases, when the enterprise no longer exists. A 'Printing Record Book' for 1941 to 1956 from Whitcombe & Tombs (of Christchurch) is held in photocopy by the Turnbull Library, which also holds records of the Wellington printing firm, Harry H. Tombs Ltd (1910-57), and important documents from the printing houses of William Colenso and his successor John Telford. In National Archives of New Zealand are the major group of records for the Government Printing Office in its various historical incarnations as the Government Printing and Stationery Department, the Government Printing Department, the Printing Office, and, finally, Government Print. These are important not only for the history of government printing and publishing, but also for the historical series of details relating to technical developments in printing presses, typefaces and other aspects of equipment.

     Some production records of Whitcombe & Tombs from the early 1920s, held by Whitcoulls Publishers Ltd, Christchurch, about 1984, are listed in Appendix 3 of McLaren (1984); although chiefly publishing records they include material relevant for printing. Selected records of Coulls Somerville Wilkie are in the Hocken Library. Some records of H.L. Young are in the Manawatu Museum. Certain records of Watson & Eyre, and the Manawatu Times, Palmerston North, and of the Raetihi Printing Co., are presently held by Massey University's English Department, but will go to the Manawatu Museum. Some records of the Wanganui Herald are in the Whanganui Regional Museum Archives. Surviving records of the Wanganui Chronicle are in Wanganui Newspapers Ltd's strong room. Records of Hawkes Bay Newspapers Ltd are preserved by the company in microfilm. Selected records of John McIndoe Ltd (Dunedin) in the Hocken Library, and of the Pegasus Press (Christchurch) in the Canterbury Museum, are concerned with publishing only. The Turnbull has some records of the Black Light and Standard Presses. These are examples only; a proper census remains to be done.

     Harvey, in his paper 'Towards a bibliography of New Zealand newspapers' (1989a), notes some of the most useful sources for newspaper history. The 19th-century journals New Zealand Press News and Typographical Circular (1876-79) and the Colonial Printers' Register (1879-81) published by George Griffin were primarily trade union journals but provide some information on technical developments and ownership concerns. The Australasian Typographical Journal (1870-1916) was principally Australian in coverage but did include some New Zealand items. Much more significant for its coverage was R. Coupland Harding's Typo (1887-97) which was intended for the industry as a whole, employers as well as workmen, and produced a valuable commentary on all aspects of developments in the trade. The Wai-te-ata Press edition of Selections from Typo (1982) prints all the passages specific to the New Zealand trade, including some of the advertisements which contain useful information on equipment sources and agencies. More recently, a trade journal of importance has been the Printers' News (1943-) of the Master Printers' Federation, succeeding their Printing Prestige .

Historical collections, exhibitions, museums, and awards

An outstanding collection of typesetting machines, presses and other equipment, most of it in working order, is at the Printers' Workshop, Ferrymead Historic Park, in Christchurch. The Bedplate Press Printing Museum Society at Silverstream, Hutt Valley, Wellington, is well-organised, and hopes that its museum will in time become the National Printing Museum. There is a significant collection at the Museum of Transport and Technology, at Western Springs in Auckland, in their 'Printshop' display. Local provincial museums, as for example the Manawatu Museum, Palmerston North, have smaller but good collections of old printing equipment, even if not all manage to provide significant documentation. The 'bibliographical presses' at Otago University in Dunedin (the Bibliography Room), Victoria University of Wellington (the Wai-te-ata Press, established by D.F. McKenzie in 1962 and revived in 1995 under the aegis of the Faculty of Arts, through a Research Fellowship), and the Holloway Press, at the Tamaki Campus of the University of Auckland, all own and use historical materials to demonstrate the traditional techniques.

     Exhibitions have included 'The Printer's Art: An Exhibition of Printing', which opened in Wellington on 25 March 1937, and travelled to three other centres. It included over 650 items, mainly posters, loaned by the British Federation of Master Printers ( Printing Prestige , 7 (September 1937): pp.5-10). In November 1940, 'quintennial celebration of printing' exhibitions, public lectures, etc., in honour of Gutenberg, and his successors, took place in the four main centres ( Printing Prestige , 16 (December 1940): pp.13-15). An exhibition mounted in 1956 by the Auckland public libraries is remembered by its printed catalogue, Printed in Auckland: Book Production and Design Past and Present . In January 1990, an 'Art of the Book' exhibition, in the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Wellington, had a valuable catalogue, Art of the Book , compiled by Rowan Gibbs, which was published by the Book Arts Society, typeset by John Denny (Püriri Press) and printed and bound by Alan Loney. In 1996-97, 'Making an Impression: A History of Government Printing' has been on display at the National Archives, Wellington, accompanied by a video showing workers and machines in action, and a brochure with a potted history of the Government Printing Office.

Technology

The technology of printing has been entirely imported and all significant changes have been introduced from the European or North American places of invention. Detailed information about the techniques can be found in the printers' manuals of England or America; a number of these have been made available since the 1960s, and much of the relevant material is summarised in Philip Gaskell's compendium A New Introduction to Bibliography (1972) which has a useful section of 'Reference Bibliography', covering the various technical aspects divided by period. The earliest printing in New Zealand used many of the techniques of the wooden press era (pre-1800), and there was then a transition to the technology current in England. Conditions in North America were often closer to the New Zealand situation than those in Britain, and works such as R.G. Silver's The American Printer 1787-1825 (1967) are worth consulting for general background.

     Technical innovations can be traced through the contemporary trade journals. The most common sources were British journals such as the British Printer (London, 1888-) and the Chicago publication Inland Printer , although other sources were also available. Individual manufacturers of machinery and other equipment would advertise in the local trade journals, and the Australian firms of printers' brokers could supply trade literature. Later in the 19th century, several New Zealand firms added the function of printers' broker to their other areas of activity; their identity must be discovered through their advertisements in the New Zealand or Australian trade journals such as Typo or, at a later date, Printers' News , the journal of the Master Printers' Federation.

     In the 20th century, on the whole, New Zealand print production processes have exhibited an accelerated pace of technological change, keeping not far behind developments in the larger, more heavily industrialised countries. Even so, older technologies persisted for a long time in niche areas, as in the continuing use of hand-set type for advertisements or posters, and of manual presses for proofing (see, for an example, William Cameron, Centenary of a Press , 1963).

     Hardware (typesetting machines, presses, guillotines, bindery presses, etc.) and new skills have still had to be imported. Type and ink have also been imported extensively, although local manufacturers, such as the ink-making firm Morrison & Morrison (ceased 1994), have taken increasing shares of the market. For a long time, all printing papers had to be imported, but since the 1950s New Zealand has become more than self-sufficient in the manufacture of newsprint and of most kinds of uncoated printing papers.

     Agencies for overseas suppliers, new migrants, travelling New Zealanders, overseas trade journals such as those already mentioned, and Penrose's Pictorial Annual , and advertisements in their own journals, have kept New Zealand printers in touch with overseas developments and induced them to invest in new plant. A representative collection of text resources which had been acquired and consulted by printers is documented in the Ferrymead Printing Society's Catalogue of Printing Technical Books (1993), which includes operating manuals for machines, catalogues for type and equipment, guides to typography and costing, and trade magazines, mainly from Britain or the USA. A noteworthy example of a migrant who introduced important innovations was Arthur McKee, who brought a linotype machine with him when he immigrated in 1890, introduced new photo-engraving techniques, and was the first printer in the southern hemisphere to run a press with an electric motor (see R.F. McKee's article in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography , vol.3).

     The New Zealand Patent Office Journal (1912-) contains a record of all patents, trade marks and designs registered in New Zealand. These include many overseas developments as well as New Zealand registrations; in both categories there are a number of innovations relevant to printing technology. Before the Journal was established the annual report of the Patent Office ( AJHR H.1, 1885, and subsequent years) included lists with the same information. The Patent Office records, both in the current material held in the Office (in Lower Hutt) and the non-current records deposited in National Archives, contain the fuller specifications of the patents registered.

     Probably the most notable of local inventors was Frederick W. Sears, who pioneered a process for photo-lithography, in the first years of this century; his article on 'alzinography' in Penrose's Pictorial Annual (1908-09) describes his process, and the contribution of a Chicago lawyer and engineer, Ira Washington Rubel, who invented the offset printing press that made it work (see also McKay, 1940, p.109). W.H. Thomas in The Inky Way (1960; see pp.89-90) writes of E. Richards' invention of a remarkably durable plate for offset printing, utilised by Thomas in New Zealand Pictorial News .

     There has been only one general survey of developments in the technology of printing in New Zealand, the work of McKay, 'Cavalcade of printing' (1940b). The 19th-century industrial exhibitions included sections on the printing industry and accounts in the exhibition reports and catalogues can be very useful, even when the descriptions are very brief. The first of these exhibitions, the New Zealand Exhibition held in Dunedin in 1865, is the most useful of these reports with the commentary in Reports and Awards of the Jurors (under class VIII: Printing and allied machinery, and class XXVIII: Paper, stationery, printing and bookbinding) being very rewarding. The New Zealand Industrial Exhibition in Wellington in 1885 also provides some useful commentary in its Official Record , as does the Official Catalogue of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin, 1889-90. Other exhibition catalogues and handbooks provide much less detail.

     Given the broad division between composition and presswork, within the composition or 'pre-press' area, right through to about 1970, there was a sharp distinction between typesetting and graphic processes, such as lithography or photo-engraving. From the 1970s onward, with the development of computerised composition, this polarity has become less clear cut. In terms of personnel, there was a correspondingly clear separation of 'printing' workers from lithographers and process engravers. Larger printing works usually had their own process departments; but smaller firms specialised in one trade or in another. Now, in the 1990s, most of the larger firms have the capacity to carry out four-colour graphic work; but even so, there is a discernible category of firms that specialise in high-quality graphics. Among the local journals, Printers' News serves the mainstream, whereas the New Zealand Printer and Graphix have been directed towards the specialists ( Graphix has included a particular interest in the printing of packaging). Computype Briefs (10 issues, 1989-91) also appealed to graphics specialists.

     A crucial dimension of technology is the skills of work people. An unsigned article, 'The printing and publishing industry of the dominion: an analysis', in Printing Prestige , 1 (October 1935) noted that printing and publishing was then 'easily the largest secondary industry in the country', and provided the highest percentage of added value, 278%, through the skilled use of its technology. Adequate levels of training of apprentices in the various crafts was thus always a major concern. In more prosperous times, the retention of skilled tradesmen could present serious difficulties for provincial printing companies, as for example, for the Hawera Star Co., which sometimes had to import tradesmen from England to replace those who left for the main centres (see One Hundred Today: The Hawera Star 1880-1980 , 10 April 1980, p.86).

     The most drastic technological innovations in the 'modern' era in printing have been in typesetting processes. The first major transformation was the progressive, but never complete, displacement, from about 1890 onwards, of hand-setting by the introduction of Linotype, Monotype and other hot-metal machines, notably Intertype and Ludlow. Whereas previously big companies had had large numbers of hand-compositors working long hours, the operators of these machines could get through work more quickly. But substantial, and extended, craft skills were still required; and increased volumes of work brought about net gains in employment levels. The second 'revolution' has been the introduction of computer typesetting from the 1970s onward. Roberta Hill and Bob Gidlow in From Hot Type to Cold Metal (1988) indicate that it has been more devastating, leaving less and less room for the exercise of the skills of the printing craftsman or woman. Graphic process work has also been transformed, now that images can be directly scanned, and integrated into layouts; again, the new technology has displaced the highly skilled craftspeople.

     Advances in printing press technology have been more frequent, and step-by-step. The skills required have changed, and the work of operators become less laborious. The introduction of steam, gas and eventually electric power obviated the need for muscle power, but manual feeding of paper for general printing persisted much longer. The introduction of automatic feeding enabled presses to work much faster.

     Technological processes available at a particular period have been outlined in Hutcheson (1938), in McKay (1940), in the Federation of Master Printers' brochure, The Printing Industry in New Zealand (1969), in the brochure entitled simply Unity Press Ltd, Auckland , in Oliver (1976), and in Hill and Gidlow (1988).

     Individual newspaper histories, usually published as special supplements to the newspaper in question, have customarily included descriptions of the currently used technology and sometimes a survey of the past technology. An excellent example of the genre is the Otago Daily Times 1861-1961: First Hundred Years , in which commentary on the paper's history is combined with notes on the advertisers, most of whom are suppliers of paper, ink and printing machinery. The Christchurch paper, The Press , is unusual for publishing a separate hardback book, R.B. O'Neill's The Press 1861-1961 , for its centenary.

     The isolated examples of jobbing printers issuing publicity booklets, such as H.I. Jones & Son Ltd's Jubilee Souvenir 1860-1910 , may include photographs and commentary to provide some technical information. Newspaper advertising supplements when a printing firm has opened new premises may also provide significant technical information on current equipment; the identification of these supplements will be difficult without systematic scanning of newspaper pages, since they are seldom covered by indexing sources.

Type and materials

This section covers typography (in the sense of design), type, equipment, and materials—ink and paper.

Typography

The term has two senses, page and book design, and the nature of typefaces. In the broader sense (which includes the choice of type), apart from the influence of R. Coupland Harding, this country's printers have generally followed fashions originating overseas.

     As J.C. Beaglehole noted, in 'Book production in New Zealand' (1948), from late last century up to about 1938 the quality of book and print material production suffered a 'big slump'. This general mediocrity could be linked to the smallness of the New Zealand book market, and the dominance over it for a long time by overseas publishers, so that only the more modest kinds of books tended to be printed within this country. There were however honourable exceptions, including some of the works printed by the Brett Publishing Co. in Auckland, and by Harry H. Tombs in Wellington, such as his edition of James Cowan and Sir Mäui Pömare's Legends of the Maori (1935), described in the Fine Arts (NZ) brochure A Romance of Book Production (1929).

     Beaglehole accorded credit for the recovery in typographical quality to the publishing policies of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (for which he had himself been the designer), and of the Department of Internal Affairs in relation to the publications associated with the 1940 Centennial, and to the rhetoric and examples provided by Robert S. Lowry in Auckland, and by the Caxton Press group in Christchurch.

     It is widely acknowledged that Lowry (see Printed in Auckland (1956) and Glover, 'Typography: Bob Lowry's books', in Book no.8 (1946)), and Denis Glover, Leo Bensemann, Dennis Donovan and others at the Caxton Press, despite the relatively small scale of their operations, did much to bring about an extensive raising of consciousness in this country about the importance of good design, and of using harmonious, elegant typefaces. Glover's 'Some notes on typography', first published in Yearbook of the Arts in New Zealand (1949), amount to a statement of faith. Alan Loney's '"Something of moment": Caxton Press typography in the 1950s' ( Landfall , 1993) traces much of the Caxton group's inspiration back to the new British book arts culture propounded by Stanley Morison, Eric Gill and Bruce Rogers. Their lead was picked up by other relatively modest sized high quality presses, such as Albion Wright's Pegasus Press, Robert Gormack's Nag's Head Press and Alan Loney's Hawk Press, in Christchurch, and Ronald Holloway's Griffin Press in Auckland. Here, the dividing line between the commercial and the hobby or private press is blurred to near invisibility.

     Other recent book designers and typographers are worthy of investigation, among them Janet Paul, originally of the publishers Blackwood & Janet Paul, and subsequently freelance, and Lindsay Missen.

     That many of the more straightforwardly commercial printers developed an active interest in the aesthetics and finer points of their craft is evidenced by some of the books and periodicals passed on from them to printing libraries such as the Ferrymead Printing Society's in Christchurch. The printer and journalist Tom L. Mills, of Wellington and Feilding (1865-1955), is mentioned by McKay (1940, p.239) as a prolific writer of newsletters, local correspondent for British, American and Australian trade journals, and contributor of articles to many other periodicals.

     General studies of the use of type in New Zealand book design have been few, but most have provided excellent indications of what should be done. Harding's comments in Typo on the new publications which came to his attention are always interesting, though brief; most are reprinted in Selections from Typo . J.E. Traue discusses certain examples of Harding's own typography in 'Robert Coupland Harding's library catalogues 1880-89' in the Turnbull Library Record of 1992. There is one general survey, McCormick's excellent but brief sketch 'Pattern of culture' (1950). As always with this author, this is an exemplary piece of work. Some very specific pieces are reviews: Beaglehole's 'A few harsh words on Areopagitica as printed' ( Book no.4, 1941) is a stringent analysis of the failure of the Caxton edition to present an historically valid typographic version of the Milton text. He provided a much more general, very brief, survey in his 'Book production in New Zealand' (1948), and his 'A small bouquet for the Education Department' (1951) acknowledges the typographic achievement of the School Publications Branch of the Department.

     Beaglehole's own work as a typographer or book designer was surveyed in a knowledgeable and expert way by Janet Paul in a lecture at the Stout Research Centre in 1991; this is to be published by the Book Arts Society in 1997. Her 1977 article on ' The Turnbull Library Record 1940-76' includes a discussion of the typography.

     Under 'Typography' may be included style manuals. Survivors include those issued by the Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspaper Co. Ltd (1927), the Dominion (1938), Wilson & Horton Ltd (1952), the Evening Post (1955), the Timaru Herald (1957), the NZ Printing and Stationery Department's Government Printing Office Style Book (1958; previously issued in separate parts, 1954-58), the most recent edition of which is The Style Book (revised and expanded by D. Wallace and J. Hughes, 1995), and Write, Edit, Print (AGPS and Lincoln University Press 1997). The Ferrymead library has three style books for the Christchurch Star (1970, 1983, n.d.).

     The only studies of typefaces used in New Zealand are the introduction by Keith Maslen to the specimen of Matthews Baxter & Co. of Dunedin, reproduced in his Victorian Typefaces in Dunedin , and the brief article by Coleridge, 'Ornamental and display types by commercial printers in colonial New Zealand' (1996). The early series of articles by Harding, 'Design in typography', in his journal Typo (which are not included in the Selections from Typo ), and his contributions to the Chicago-based Inland Printer (c.1894-1905) are general studies with no specific New Zealand reference, but they are important because they provide the context for subsequent developments in New Zealand and for Harding's own work. D.F. McKenzie discusses the ideas in these articles in 'Robert Coupland Harding on design in typography' in An Index of Civilisation (1993).

     Type specimens are the most important source material for the history of typography. The first creative act of the printer has always been to build his (occasionally her) stock of types, by selecting from the range of competing designs. The choice is normally made from type specimens, issued since almost the earliest days of printing, formerly by type-founders selling their wares in the form of finished cold metal types or as matrices—a few such firms still operate—and recently by computer software companies such as Adobe Systems Inc. Type specimens from the original supplier, whether in the form of books, brochures, or single sheets, are invaluable sources for the identification of typefaces in local use, as well as for tracing the sources of supply. Few copies of early type founders' specimen books exist outside the major production centres in Europe and North America, where St Bride's Printing Library in London has the best publicly accessible collection.

     The Lyon & Blair Specimens of Printing Types . . . manufactured by Stephenson, Blake & Co. (probably c.1885) is the nearest to a type founder's catalogue produced in 19th-century New Zealand; Lyon & Blair were agents for Stephenson Blake from about 1875. The specimen books issued by printers, such as the Matthews, Baxter specimen reprinted in Victorian Typefaces , and the 1878 Specimens of Type, Borders &c used in Lyttelton Prison, seldom if ever identify the designer or foundry, as Coupland Harding complained. Harding's own Catalogue of Printing Types, Machinery and Materials which was printed in 1897 is, apparently, a remarkable exception. Unfortunately it seems to survive only as a single copy held in private hands.

     In the 20th century, specimens of typefaces from overseas suppliers have often been distributed, if not printed, by New Zealand agents. Examples are the specimens of Mouldtype faces issued perhaps since the 1930s by Morrison & Morrison (later Morrison Printing Inks & Machinery). A significant Wellington agent, Alex Cowan & Sons Ltd, issued Specimens of Printing Types, Borders, &c. , kept in stock (undated, c.1910). The country of supply is significant. In 1881, George Griffin, the Dunedin proprietor of the Colonial Printers' Register , lamented that the British were neglecting the colonial market, 'which in the matter of ornamental and jobbing type, is almost monopolised by the Americans' (vol.2, p.132, 30 June 1881). Comparative studies, for instance with Australia, are needed.

     New Zealand has not had an originator of type designs ( pace Harding), but in the 20th century, local foundries have been established to cast type suitable for hand-setting using overseas-supplied matrices, by firms such as Express Typesetters in Christchurch; thus it became much easier to replace worn fonts, recycling the metal. Firms with their own typesetting machines have required ingots of metal, sets of matrices, and catalogues of faces.

     The Ferrymead Printing Society's library catalogue lists a substantial collection of specimen books, from founders such as Stephenson Blake (UK, c.1880, 1963), Berthold Type Foundry (Berlin), American Type Founders Co. (1912, n.d.), and also from the American suppliers of typesetting machines, Mergenthaler Linotype Co., Intertype Corporation, Harris-Intertype Corporation, Ludlow Typograph Co., Lanston Monotype Corporation, and Monotype Corporation. Other repositories have representative examples from these and other firms.

     Printers' types and the way they use them may be seen in whatever issues from their press. However, individual printers have often chosen to display their wares and skills by designing and printing their own type specimens. These were sometimes prepared for trade exhibitions, as for instance the Fergusson and Mitchell works exhibited at the Dunedin exhibitions of 1865 and 1889-90. Most were produced for distribution to potential customers. Specimens have frequently been issued by newspaper printers, such as the Otago Daily Times , for the use of advertisers in their newspaper, or for customers of their jobbing department. Examples of specimens from other than newspaper printers include much sought after pieces from the Caxton Press, Christchurch, in the days of Denis Glover and Leo Bensemann, such as Meet Some Nice Types (1956). The Government Printing Office's New Type for Every Job (1952) was attractively 'set up and designed by William Sinclair, typographer'. The Ferrymead library includes specimens from firms such as The Press , the Christchurch Star , Bascands (Christchurch), Coulls Somerville Wilkie Ltd, and Whitcombe's/Whitcoulls. The Turnbull Library also has copies of some of these, and of others from other firms. The Caxton Press issued two specimen books 'of faces commonly in use' (1940; 1948; new ed. 1956, (expanded) 1979).

     How many printers' specimens have yet to be collected—or may be lost forever—is suggested by Harding's comments on 'Trade Lists and Samples' in the issue of Typo for October 1890 (p.123): 'We have been shown a little book of 24 pages, issued by Fergusson and Mitchell, of Dunedin, and advertising the branches of work undertaken by that firm. Each page is different in design, and some recent novelties in type are displayed. It is the work of Mr J. McIndoe, and contains the best typographical designing that we have seen done in New Zealand . . .'

     The display advertising of individual printers will usually form a partial showcase of their selection of jobbing types. These pages do not, of course, name the types in any way. Coupland Harding preserved a collection of leaflets, which are now held in the Turnbull Library ('Collection of leaflets', 1874-87). In the case of other printers one must go to the advertisement pages of the almanacs and directories that they published (listed in Don Hansen's The Directory Directory , 1994) and the occasional special publication such as the Wellington Typographical Union's Patriotic Souvenir 1914 , which offers pages from a variety of firms with some anecdotes and brief accounts of printing.

     With the advent of machine casting in the 20th century, and the greater control of designs which accompanied a changed attitude to type design, the specimen books produced by printing firms were far more likely to identify the types precisely so that printers, or specialist typesetters, would automatically name the fonts they had available, and a printers' broker would name the designs they were offering for sale. This tendency was reinforced by the ease with which printers could obtain specimens and other sale literature directly from the original manufacturers, wherever they were located, even if they could not import the actual fonts, because of import restrictions. This was also true for the prospective customer, if interested, so that an advertising executive, for example, could have specimens from type designers in America, Britain, Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, and Spain, even if no New Zealand printer ever bought type from any of them.

     The introduction of computer controlled phototypesetting, and the other technical advances of the 1970s and 1980s, made the identification of typefaces even more relevant, and a large printer such as the Government Printing Office would automatically itemise the designs and type sizes available, as in their looseleaf Gold Book specimen book of 1984.

Presses and other machinery

The machinery for all aspects of printing—the presses, the composing machines, and other more specialised equipment—has all been imported, usually having been manufactured in Europe (including Great Britain) or North America, though a number of Australian firms began to manufacture copies of European designs, with or without authorisation, from the mid 19th century. The standard sources for investigating the history of this machinery are indicated in Gaskell (1972), and James Moran's specialist work Printing Presses (1973).

     There have been no general surveys of the development of printing machinery as such in New Zealand, although most general accounts of the technology treat the introduction of new presses in some detail, and newspaper histories, such as the Otago Daily Times celebrates 125 years 1861-1986 , usually place considerable stress on this aspect of their history.

     Some useful articles deal with particular aspects of the technology, or the sources of equipment. Kwasitsu's 'The production of the Nelson Examiner' (1986) covers the printing presses, as well as all the other features of the newspaper technology. There are also a group of articles on individual surviving, or historic, presses, beginning with William Cameron's New Zealand's First Printing Press (1959) on the press used by William Yate in 1830. Other articles on particular presses are:
     William Cameron, Centenary of a Press (1963)
     Ruth M. Ross, 'Bishop Pompallier's press in New Zealand' (1973)
     M. Fitzgerald, 'A press from Paihia in the National Museum' (1974)
     Roderick Cave, 'A common press in New Zealand' (1984)
     Roderick Cave, 'An uncommon press in Canterbury Museum' (1993)

     John Fletcher's article 'From the Waikato to Vienna and back' (1984), discusses the fate of the printing press gifted by the Austrian Emperor and used to print the Kingite newspaper Te Hokioi , as well as recounting the experiences of the two Mäori men who were taught to print in Vienna.

     In the early 1960s, Cameron of Auckland University's English Department conducted a census that located about 70 19th-century hand-presses; but this needs updating. Until relatively recently, several such presses remained in commercial use as proofing presses, examples being the Albion described by Cameron in 1963, and the Imperial press used by Watson & Eyre, Palmerston North, now in Massey University's Bibliography Room. Others may be in the possession of members of the Association of Handcraft Printers.

     The Pompallier building at Russell is one historical museum with good documentation on the equipment on display, and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust's explanatory leaflet Pompallier: l'Imprimerie Mariste (1994c) has an excellent brief description of the equipment, just as the leaflet Pompallier: Composition (1994a) gives information on the techniques involved in printing.

     The best surviving archives relating to acquisition (and disposal) of mechanical hardware are those of the Government Printing Office. The archives of printing and newspaper companies, such as those listed above, may have some information. Otherwise the details for particular firms must be gleaned from newspaper histories, such as that by R.B. O'Neill (1963), and centennial issues, also from local histories such as Paul Melody's They Called it Marton (1979), and autobiographies such as Kay Holloway's Meet Me at the Press (1994), about the Griffin Press which, for much of its life, she operated with her husband Ronald.

     For the 20th century, details of the increasingly sophisticated presses becoming available can be found in articles and advertisements in trade journals, originated both overseas and locally, and in newspapers' centennial supplements. McKay (1940b, pp.103-04) shows the machine press field still dominated, about 1900, by different marks of Wharfedales, with newspaper printers shifting from double-feeders to quadruple-feeders. However, for the larger newspapers, increasingly fast and massive rotary presses were needed. The Otago Daily Times obtained a Hoe rotary press in 1894. The Press got one in 1909, from R. Hoe and Co., New York (O'Neill, 1963, p.129). In 1961, it was claimed eight out of ten daily newspapers were using Hoe-Crabtree rotary press plants, with 50 in use throughout the country (Morrison & Morrison advert, Otago Daily Times centennial supplement). There has been a subsequent shift towards web offsets. For example, on 7 June 1988, the Manawatu Evening Standard brought into operation its recently acquired Goss Urbanite offset, issuing a supplement, Press Time '88 , to celebrate the event and review its previous presses.

     The first offsets had arrived in the country in 1913, offering improved capabilities for colour printing. >From 1923 onward, the vertical Miehles had started coming into use, and about a decade later, the Heidelbergs. Information about the increasingly sophisticated and specialised presses and processes becoming available appeared in advertisements and articles in British, American and Australian trade journals, and, since 1935, in local journals also, Printing Prestige, Printers' News (from 1946), and in the more recently started journals, The New Zealand Printer and Graphix . Nowadays, just as there are many kinds of printed products, from postage stamps to flexible packaging, bewilderingly many different kinds of presses have developed for printing them.

     The development of composing machines began from 1822 onward with various cold-metal devices, but none seem to have reached New Zealand. The 1880s saw the development of the first hot-metal machine, the Linotype, by Ottmar Mergenthaler of Baltimore, as 'its chief (though not its only progenitor)', which became viable in quantity when conjoined with the Benton punch-cutter in 1889, with 'large-scale series production' beginning in 1890 (Gaskell, 1972, pp.274-76).

     Despite McKay's statement (1940b, pp.107-08) that Linotypes were first brought into the country in 1897, for the Auckland Star , the New Zealand Herald , The Press , Christchurch, and the Otago Daily Times , the DNZB article on Arthur McKee states that he brought one with him when he immigrated in 1890 (he established the firm of McKee and Gamble, and as one of the three directors of the Cyclopedia Company, formed to produce the volumes of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand , 1897-1908, carried out the engraving, stereotyping and machine work for its first volume). Harding records in Typo , 27 September 1890, a report in the Tauranga-based Bay of Plenty Times of 22 September 1890 about its bringing into use of an efficient typesetting machine, operated by a woman ( Selections from Typo , p.106). Clearly there is room here for further enquiries.

     W.A. Glue's History of the Government Printing Office (1966) notes that in spite of its very heavy workload this establishment moved more cautiously, installing two Linotypes and two of the recently perfected Monotype machines in 1903. The Monotypes proved the more suitable for its needs, and in the next year it bought more. Generally, however, Glue does not go into much explicit detail about machinery acquisitions, and recourse must be had to the archives themselves, or to annual reports in AJHR (many records were lost in the 1890 fire, but annual reports survive for the earlier decades; for some reason they were not submitted for the period 1893-1915).

     The New Zealand Provincial Press Ltd's The Provincial Market (c.1974) includes brief 'mechanical data' and the 'printing method' for each newspaper dealt with.

     Again, the printers' journals mentioned above provide useful sources for the introduction of computerised typesetting. Hill and Gidlow (1988) examine the technological changes involved, and the impact upon the workforce of the Christchurch Star newspaper. The teletypesetting machine represented an intermediate stage, with operators taking in advertisements by telephone and typing them into a device that produced a punched paper ribbon. Photo-typesetting is discussed by J.G. Gregory and I.M. Calhaem in articles in An Editorial Processing Centre for New Zealand Journals (1979). In the 1990s, camera-ready copy can be produced by anyone with access to a computer and a good quality desktop printer; and if only a small number of copies are required, these can be photocopied, so that some of the traditional work of the commercial printer is gone. Full-colour reproduction can be done with a laser print copier.

     Advertisements in the journals, and in newspapers' centennial supplements, identify the main suppliers of printing hardware and other requirements, either as agents or as manufacturers. Companies such as Alex Cowan & Sons, A.M. Satterthwaite & Co. Ltd, Printing Inks & Machinery Ltd (Auckland), Morrison & Morrison, with its major plant in Christchurch (see Tait, 1961), and T.S. Wilson & Gollin Ltd, themselves merit investigation. In recent years, the ubiquitous liquidations, mergers and takeovers among companies have changed the names and owners of many participants; Morrison & Morrison, as an example, has been displaced by Manders Coatings & Inks, the New Zealand subsidiary of a British firm.

Graphic reproduction techniques

The only significant general survey of graphic reproduction techniques is McKay's 'Process-engraving' (1940c). There are occasional articles in the art history literature which deal with individual artists and touch on the technical details of reproduction, but the article by R.P. Hargreaves, 'The first New Zealand lithographs' (1982) is rare for focusing on the commercial application of the techniques. Bruce Sampson's Early New Zealand Botanical Art (1985) provides the printing historian with a useful survey which includes some description of the technical processes used for those works which were printed in New Zealand, and some information on the technicians who actually did the work. There is one separate study of an early technician. Marcel Stanley's brief compilation on Alfred Ernest Cousins , an engraver and die-sinker who prepared the dies for many of New Zealand's postage stamps in the 1890s, reproduces various relevant documents as a brochure for the 1980 New Zealand International Stamp Exhibition.

     There are a few articles and papers relating to the technical aspects of graphic reproduction. In 1871, Julius Vogel reported for the Government Printing Department on 'photo-zincography', the technique of photolithography on zinc plates ( Information obtained . . ., AJHR G.27, 1871), with particular reference to its possible application to the production of maps. It gives an excellent summary of the technical details, with an estimated price list of the materials required. Five years later, a further report ( Photolithographic Branch . . . Papers relating to the saving effected by the . . ., AJHR H.22, 1876), summarised the savings which resulted from the introduction of photolithography; it also includes technical details along with the costings. By this time, photolithography was becoming a standard, although specialised, branch of printing techniques and thereafter there are few references to it, except in technical manuals.

     The 20th century has witnessed the introduction of increasingly sophisticated reproduction processes. McKay provides an overview up to 1940 (1940c, pp.118-126). The British publication Penrose's Pictorial Annual was a vital source of information for any serious printer about new developments. The various trade journals, and especially The New Zealand Printer , Graphix and Computype Briefs , are useful on the importation of more recent technical innovations in graphic fields.

     For some decades the Government Printing Office took the lead in introducing new, improved machinery and processes. Glue (1966) indicates that by 1890, in addition to the composition room and pressroom, its other branches included lithographic, and photolithographic—to which was later added photo-engraving, as half-tone processes were introduced later in this decade. There were also those for stereotype and electrotype work, stamp printing, and binding, and the stationery store. Relatively few commercial companies would have been as fully integrated.

     In the past, the engraver, the etcher, and the lithographer, who drew designs directly upon the stone, were very much artists in their own right, as well as skilled craftspeople. From about 1960, the development of devices such as the Klischograph for reproducing images directly as zinc or polymer blocks greatly speeded up illustration processes, by eliminating the intermediate artist. As a partial response, in the 1960s the Committee on Standards of Graphic Reproduction issued five booklets, compiled by R.H. Colson, J.A. O'Dea and W.A. O'Neill, to advocate improved 'standards' in using contemporary processes.

     Attention may be extended here to professional originators of graphic material: book illustrators such as Stuart Peterson and Edith Howes (see P.A. Lawlor, 'The New Zealand book illustrator', 1936), Leo Bensemann at Caxton, Robert Brett at Caxton and Pegasus, and Russell Clark, to cartoonists such as Minhinnick and David Low, and to designers of pictorial dust-jackets, one of the roles of Felix Kelly (later, of London's Lilliput). Rowan Gibbs of Smith's Bookshop Ltd, Wellington, is establishing a valuable resource of New Zealand illustrated books, taking the view that sometimes their illustrations, dust-jackets or stamped covers are their only distinguished feature.

Paper

The artefacts themselves are the primary source of evidence for the study of paper used by the printing industry. However, the necessary analytical methods would not, even under the most liberal conditions, provide information on the sources of supply, price, or other relevant factors. For these, secondary sources must be used.

     Most printing and writing papers used in New Zealand have been imported. Early experiments in making paper from flax fibre failed in commercial application because of the toughness of the fibre and the difficulty of eliminating the gum. The first commercial paper mills in New Zealand began at Woodhaugh, on the outskirts of Dunedin, in May 1876, and two months later at Mataura in Southland. Both mills concentrated on making wrapping papers, using rope, rags and other recycled materials, although some rough printing papers were made at various times, particularly during World War I. The Mataura plant continued in operation, as New Zealand Paper Mills, and became a 'white' (good quality printing paper) mill after 1960.

     North Island mills were established after World War II, beginning production by NZ Forest Products at Kinleith in 1954, and at Kawerau by Tasman Pulp and Paper in 1955. These use pulp from the pinus radiata plantations of the region, as well as imported pulp, and produce newsprint and other basic printing papers. By 1985, Tasman 30 reports, Tasman had developed a substantial export market in newsprint and kraft pulp.

     The costs and availability of papers have generally been critical parameters for the industry. There were major price increases during World War I, with serious shortages, and in World War II controls were imposed, removed after the war but reimposed in December 1945 until worldwide supplies had recovered.

     Throughout its history the vast majority of printing papers used in New Zealand have been imported. While official statistics will provide raw figures for volume and value, and possibly for countries of origin, only a study of individual invoices could supply enough detail to be of use in specific cases. The records of individual firms might preserve these invoices, but few such records survive.

     Trade advertisements of individual wholesaling commercial stationers may provide hints. These advertisements are particularly likely to appear in trade journals, such as the Master Printers' Federation's Printers' News , or in the centennial supplements of newspapers. Large overseas suppliers such as John Dickinson and Bowaters had their own agencies, but other suppliers were represented by agents such as Gordon & Gotch, or B.J. Ball. They were linked in the NZ Paper Merchants' Association.

     Directories can provide information about the wholesale stationers, and the Cyclopedia of New Zealand is the most comprehensive example of this type of information source; others are mentioned elsewhere (see 'Owners and firms' below).

     The Federation of Master Printers included a small pamphlet The Story of Paper in their information series in 1950-51, and this describes the general history of paper manufacture. John H. Angus's Papermaking Pioneers (1976) includes a survey of attempts at the manufacture of paper in New Zealand, as part of the scene-setting for its full account of the New Zealand Paper Mills plant at Mataura, and it also touches on the North Island mills established after World War II. The modern wood-pulp industry is a separate area of study, with a significant international literature on the technical and economic aspects which extend well beyond the qualities related to printing. An initial study on the technical feasibility of the industry in New Zealand was made in 1928, reported to Parliament as Pulp and paper making (report on investigations into suitability of selected New Zealand-grown woods for) (AJHR C.3A, 1928). Subsequent developments in the New Zealand pulp and paper industry can be pursued through the technical and business literature indexed in Index to New Zealand Periodicals and Index New Zealand , and the even more specific business index and database Newzindex .

     The Industries Development Commission's Report no.6: Book Production Inquiry (1978) and Report no.7: Tariff Inquiry, Certain Paper and Paperboard of Tariff Heading 48.01 (1979) include valuable information about the impact of tariffs on imported papers in imposing higher costs upon local printers, hence disadvantaging them in relation to overseas printing companies exporting to the New Zealand market, which were able to buy paper duty-free. Printers protested; but New Zealand paper making companies welcomed the degree of protection afforded by these tariffs.

Binding

The most significant source of evidence for bookbinding practices in 19th-century New Zealand are the books which survive in their original bindings. Sometimes these copies may contain the label of the binder, permitting some assessment of the skills of those firms. Techniques were imported, as were the materials and equipment, and Gaskell (1972) can be referred to for some basic references on the techniques available in the 19th century. The Historic Places Trust leaflets on Pompallier at Russell include an excellent account, Pompallier: l'Atelier de Reliure (1994b), of the equipment and methods used in that French-influenced workshop.

     The 19th-century industrial exhibitions included sections displaying bookbinding work done in New Zealand, and there is some slight commentary on these examples in the reports; the most useful of these reports is in the Official Record of the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition held in Wellington in 1885.

     These sources do not distinguish between custom binding (by individual order) and edition binding. The distinction became important once New Zealand publications were issued in edition sizes greater than the 400 or 500 copies which were the maximum for most of the 19th century. Even by the late 1890s, the Cyclopedia of New Zealand and other directories normally subsumed bookbinding under the printers or manufacturing stationers by whom the binders were normally employed, and the same is true of discussions in the trade literature. Colenso (1888) records his work not only as a printer but as New Zealand's first binder.

     Case, or 'hardback', binding remains inevitably relatively labour intensive, and accordingly costly, except where wages are very low. The Industries Development Commission's Report no.6: Book Production Inquiry (1978) and Oliver's study (1976) offer statistics indicating that by 1976/77 the ratio of 'hardbound' to 'softbound' books printed in New Zealand was roughly one to three, the reverse of the usual overseas situation.

     These figures, and the IDC's accompanying graphs, represented a state of decline not only for New Zealand printers of hardbacks, but also for binders, which has doubtless continued. The introduction of 'perfect binding' provided an efficient means of binding paperbacks; but Wilson & Horton's reported experience in 1976 of under-utilisation of its new perfect binding machine was probably typical (see IDC report, p.25). An article by Cyril Fisher, 'Trade binders are scarce in New Zealand', in The New Zealand Printer (October 1984, p.32) states that most printing firms were doing their own binding, and the only trade binder currently in Wellington was Express Trade Binders, founded in 1958. A subsequent article, 'Service must be no.1' (February 1987, pp.42-43) deals with the Christchurch bookbinding and book-finishing firm S.I. McHarg Ltd.

     While conditions have remained difficult for edition binding, a number of small firms and individuals continue with custom binding, working for private customers and for libraries. Bill Tito in Akatarawa, a repair binder, has been the subject of a Radio New Zealand Spectrum documentary (National Radio, 29 December 1996) as well as being profiled in local newspapers. Wills Bookbinding and Printing in Palmerston North, like other similar firms in university cities, is kept quite busy in certain months with graduate students' theses, as well as the regular binding of serials for local libraries. Fine and designer binding is a specialist area which is only now being studied in New Zealand, in association with work on artists' books. Edgar Mansfield is the most distinguished New Zealand exponent of this art, but Margery Blackman has studied the Dunedin binder Eleanor Joachim (active 1904-14) and others will undoubtedly be identified as research continues. Beth Carrick's New Zealand Guide to Art and Craft (1996) includes a list of craft bookbinders.

Stationery manufacture and supply

The earliest representatives of the 'booktrade' were stationers, and the conjunction of the sale of writing materials and commercial office appliances with the sale of books has always been common in New Zealand. In the 19th century it was only in the largest towns of England that the sale of books had been separated from that of stationery, and, in New Zealand, many of the larger printing firms in the larger towns sold books and were engaged in the manufacture of some forms of commercial stationery such as account books. Nevertheless, even in the largest manufacturing stationers a high proportion of the stationery for sale had been imported.

     The 19th-century industrial exhibitions, most notably the 1885 New Zealand Industrial Exhibition in Wellington, included displays of commercial stationery (which included copying presses, pens, ink and rubber stamps), and the Official Record of that exhibition comments on significant contributions. The evidence to the 1895 Tariff Commission ( AJHR H.2, 1895) makes it plain how significant the impact of imported materials and finished goods were on the manufacturing trade.

     H.J. Tubbs contributed a brief survey of the firms, 'Stationery manufacturing', to McKay (1940). Apart from this, the history of the trade must, as so often, be followed through the trade journals and occasional advertising supplements in newspapers, even though, in many respects, the stationery and printing industries have now converged in the computer industry.

The trade

Men and women of the trade

The initial task of identifying who was engaged in the trade in any given locality must be pursued through general sources. Jury lists, electoral rolls and directories are standard tools in family history and these can, sometimes painfully, be scanned for those with the relevant occupations. Directories are among the most useful sources for those in business (as distinct from employees) and there is an excellent bibliography by Hansen, The Directory Directory (1994), which indicates the categories of information supplied in each title, as well as library holdings. The six-volume Cyclopedia of New Zealand (1897-1908) contains articles, locality by locality, on the businesses and prominent residents, and newspapers and printing firms are well covered in the set. All identifiable entries were extracted and reproduced separately, in alphabetical order, as Printing, Bookselling and their Allied Trades in New Zealand c.1900 , in 1980, and this will be a convenient starting point for many searches.

     Once individuals have been identified the pursuit of this specific biography will take the researcher into the area of family history, particularly for those who did not have prominent public careers. Family history is an area which receives much attention from libraries and archives, and there are a number of research guides: the most comprehensive is Anne Bromell's Tracing Family History in New Zealand (rev. ed. 1996). Many families have had a formal family history prepared, which may provide the desired information on the printer member. However, family historians seldom have an active understanding of the character of the occupations of family members and either ignore them, or get significant details wrong. This is unfortunate, because such histories are often the only extensive account of an individual's life. An otherwise useful example is Melva G. Vincent's The Vincent Printers (1980) which compresses two substantial typescript accounts of William E. Vincent, an early Wellington printer, and his descendants in New England, New South Wales. Although accurate on most technical details (such as makes of printing presses), there are substantive errors in, for example, the account of William Vincent's London apprenticeship. In contrast, however, the modest account by Struan Robertson, The Life and Times of Samuel Revans (1989), is reliable at all points where it has been tested, and the collective account prepared by Edgar Gregory and Nevill Wilson, Gregorys-Camerons, Printers to Dunedin , of two connected families is enlightening in its coverage of printing history as well as the family links.

     Some other early printers have been the subject of formal biographies. The most substantial of these is the biography William Colenso , by A.G. Bagnall and G.C. Petersen (1948). Colenso's career was so varied, and the time of his active involvement in printing is so well-documented in his own account (1888) that it is not remarkable that almost no new significant detail is added, except as already reported by Hill (1901). For the historian of printing this is disappointing, but the whole work is rightly regarded as an excellent biography.

     Peter Kennett's Unsung Hero (1991) on Barzillai Quaife, first newspaper editor in the Bay of Islands, is a work of considerable interest, dealing primarily with Quaife's political struggles. It draws usefully upon Quaife's own, quite rare, publication The Vindicator (1865) which records his problems, both technical and political, in some detail.

     Other biographies of political figures who came from a background in the printing industry have usually treated their early careers very superficially, if at all. Some attention may be paid to the journalism, and possibly to the economic aspects of their newspaper involvement, but even this will normally

be subordinated to the political career. The recent political biography of John Ballance by T. McIvor, The Rainmaker (1989), is a welcome exception which even incorporates some paragraphs on the technical side of newspaper management.

     Those printers, newspaper proprietors, and similar figures, who were elected to the House of Representatives or appointed to the Legislative Council at any stage in their careers, will have received a parliamentary tribute after their deaths. Some of these tributes are very brief, such as that for Joseph Ivess, in the Parliamentary Debates on 11 September 1919 (vol.184, pp.428-29), but others could be quite lengthy, with contributions by members other than party leaders, such as that for John Rigg on 23 February 1944 (vol.264, pp.9-11 in the Legislative Council, and pp.19-22 in the House of Representatives). Tributes can be located by means of the Sessional Indexes to the Debates , under the name of the deceased member.

     Summary biographical information for some members of the trade can be found in standard biographical sources such as Who's Who in New Zealand (1st ed. 1908, 12th (most recent) ed. 1991) and the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1990-). The biographical database on individuals nominated for the Dictionary is preserved in the office of the Dictionary secretariat, in the Department of Internal Affairs, whether or not the individuals are included in the published volumes. The database is available for consultation by researchers on application to the office. A larger representation of the Otago trade will be covered in Southern People , to be published by Dunedin City Council in 1998. The earlier Dictionary of New Zealand Biography compiled by Guy Scholefield in 1940 includes a number of individuals not covered in the more recent work but the standard of the essays is very variable and many entries are very brief.

     Short articles on individuals may appear in many locations. McKay (1940) includes 'Men of the industry', with brief biographical notes on a range of men, and the various trade journals have always printed obituary notices. Coleridge has published an essay, 'Edward Catchpool', in An Index of Civilisation (1993), on the printer and publisher of Wellington's short-lived newspaper The New Zealand Colonist , and Harvey has published on Joseph Ivess in the Turnbull Library Record (1988). Two printing-related essays in family history deal with J.H. Claridge, appearing in Historical Journal Auckland-Waikato (April 1975) by J.C. Claridge, and by Stella Jones in Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal (April 1980). These are most useful. Frank Fyfe of Greytown included material on Sam Revans ( Revans: Father of the Press , with Adam Fyfe, and Gullible Sam , together with two collections of Revans's letters, Letters from Woodside , and Letters from Huangarua ) and on Richard Wakelin ( Wakelin: Father of Journalism ) in the series of booklets on Wairarapa history that he published from Wakelin House and Broadoak Press. These all need to be checked for factual accuracy.

     Other biographical material must be sought through such sources as newspaper obituaries, and the occasional local history. The newspaper trade has always followed the custom of writing up their own people, and every newspaper centennial issue will include an article on the founders, on some of the editorial staff, and sometimes also on the printers. The Greymouth Evening Star: Centennial Supplement (1966) is a good example of this. Journalists' memoirs may occasionally discuss printers as well as journalists; most of Lawlor's accounts of journalists have no references to printers, but his Pat Lawlor's Wellington (1976) does include a chapter 'The Blundell Brothers'.

     In-house journals such as Coulls Somerville Wilkie's Invicta News , or the Government Printing Office's Print (1949-50), provide some information about printing employees. So also do trade union publications, such as Imprint , and those for special anniversaries. Trade journals such as Printing Prestige and Printers' News sometimes include short articles about notable people who have retired or died. For the Government Printing Office, the volume presented to Marcus Marks on his retirement in 1922 includes the signatures of all its employees at that time, in their respective departments.

     Where names are known, there are volumes of newspaper clippings, 'New Zealand Biographies,' and 'New Zealand Obituaries', in the Alexander Turnbull Library, recently made more widely available in a microfiche edition. In the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, there is the George Randall McDonald Biographical Dictionary.

     Printing trades workers went overseas in the armed forces in both world wars, and those who died often received obituaries. Some of them wrote and printed newsletters, miscellanies, and official items, both on troopships and in the countries they were based in. A.B. Clark and J.C. Andersen's article in McKay (1940) on the troopship publications in World War I is noticed above. For World War II, information about the producers of publications in the 2NZEF in North Africa and Italy, such as Kiwi News , and in the 3rd Division in the Pacific, can be sought in official war histories, and in autobiographies and biographies.

     Finally, printers who did not become journalists have occasionally prepared their memoirs. J.H. Claridge prepared and printed two collections of anecdotes, Odd Notes (1928) and 75 Years in New Zealand (1938?) which include some personal experiences. Marcus Marks, the New Zealand Government Printer from 1916 to 1922, published Memories (Mainly Merry) in 1934. This contains almost no technical information on his working career but has interesting anecdotes of his life as an apprentice and as a journeyman. The family of the Wellington printer Lemuel Watkins published privately in 1992 his Mellowed Memories which describes his career as a printer in considerable, sometimes technical, detail. As a source for printing history rather than biographical detail it is the best work discussed here.

Owners and firms

One can usefully divide printing enterprises into categories. First there was the Government Printing Office, now GP Print, absorbed within the Whitcoulls Group, and owned by US Office Products, but for over a century a producer of every kind of official publication.

     There are the institutional presses, such as at the universities, several of which have their own printing plants; for example, the Otago University printery, and Massey University's printery, which provides study materials for over 600 extramural courses.

     The commercial printing firms, large and small, can be subdivided into those mainly concerned with producing newspapers, and those devoted to general and jobbing printing. None of them have been exclusively committed to book printing. Some have been specialist enterprises devoted to lithography, photo-engraving, etc., and nowadays to colour graphics.

     There has been, since the 1930s, a distinct group of small to medium sized 'literary' presses, such as Caxton, Pegasus and Griffin, operating commercially but for much of their lives committed to literary publications and periodicals. Printeries 'with a cause' have included religion-based enterprises such as the printing establishment of the Gospel Publishing House, Palmerston North. Finally there is an array of private presses and hobby printers, although some of these seek at least to break even, as with the Holloway Press, at Auckland University's Tamaki campus.

     The printing industry has always been so structured that it is fairly easy for an individual to move from employee to owner and back again. At certain times the capital outlay necessary to establish even a small printing firm has been substantial relative to the worker's opportunities to accumulate capital, but technical innovations have also meant that second hand equipment would be readily available at a reasonable price. Because many firms are very small, with only two or three employees, there is also likely to be a great deal of uniformity of outlook between the owners and the workers on many issues.

     There have been few histories of firms apart from newspapers, which have always marked their own jubilees or centennials with special supplements. The Jubilee Souvenir 1860-1910 of H.I. Jones & Son of Wanganui is a rare example of an historical booklet produced by a firm which did not publish a newspaper. Glue (1966) is the only substantial institutional history apart, again, from the newspapers.

     Directories supply the readiest means of identifying printing firms, particularly those with a separate classified trade section. These may not list all printers in any particular town, as small firms are particularly vulnerable to being overlooked by canvassers or to collapsing before they can be recorded. The newspaper and printer registrations at the High Court (formerly the Supreme Court) should in theory provide a more complete coverage, with the registrations under the Printers and Newspapers Registration Act 1868 requiring information on the number of presses owned, as well as the names and addresses of the printers. The 1868 Act has now been replaced by the Newspapers and Printers Act 1955 which does not require the registration of printing presses, only the ownership of newspapers. Since 1979, changes in ownership of the larger firms, and other developments, can be traced through the business index Newzindex , which is available online as well as in paper.

     The Master Printers' Federation has published its own journal, Printing Prestige , from 1935 to 1951, followed by Printers' News , since 1953, when it was taken over from the Auckland Master Printers' Association which founded it in 1943. These will be the basic source of information for the history of the Federation; a special issue in 1957 provided a history of the Federation. Clarkson and Berry contributed a brief survey to McKay (1940), and in 1989 A.E.J. Arts published History of the Canterbury Master Printers , the only substantial regional history. The federal body has now become the Printing Industries Association of New Zealand; as is usual with trade organisations, the records of the individual branches normally remain with the surviving bodies.

     Patrick Day's The Making of the New Zealand Press (1990) contains potted biographies of men associated with running newspapers in the early period, some of them printers.

     For the earlier period, for provincial firms, often their own printed letterheads for invoices provide details of changing proprietors, and of services offered. More recently, for firms, there are simply the relevant sections in commercial portions of telephone books, which may include display entries showing the various services provided.

     Rowan Gibbs, Smith's Bookshop Ltd, has compiled two looseleaf manuscript indexes of pre-1890 printers from imprints of books in Volume 1 of Bagnall's National Bibliography by name and by place.

     Some firms such as Coulls Somerville Wilkie are relatively well-documented, with records in the Hocken Library, its history in Invicta News (and in a more extended form in typescript in the Hocken Library), and a profile in Tait (1961). Whitcombe & Tombs produced a prospectus on the merger of the two firms, first as Printing and Packaging Corporation, then as Whitcoulls.

     Denis Glover's Hot Water Sailor (1962) has an entertaining account of his launching of the Caxton Press, with John Drew and others. Peter Low's Printing by the Avon (1995) recounts the history of this small, high quality printing and publishing firm. Robert Gormack's The Nag's Head Press (1992) deals with his own small semi-commercial press, including a list of publications.

     Such business information resources as Datex investment service, the NZ Company Register , and the Nielsen Media Directory disclose the massive extent to which most of the more substantial New Zealand printing, newspaper, publishing, bookselling and paper making companies have recently been taken over by overseas corporations: the Whitcoulls Group (including what had been the Government Printing Office, GP Print Ltd), by US Office Products (Blue Star), Independent Newspapers Ltd by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Ltd, Wilson & Horton by Dr Tony O'Reilly's Dublin-based Independent News; and so it goes on. Datex especially provides much information about the makeup and recent history of the larger New Zealand companies.

Trade unions and trade conditions

The primary sources for information about conditions within the trade can be found in the records of the trade unions, on the one hand, and of the Labour Department on the other.

     Although a number of specialised unions for occupations such as the letterpress machinists, bookbinders, lithographers, and paper-cutters were in existence at different times, with varying combinations in different regions, these nearly all came into existence after the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894, and all were preceded by the various Typographical Associations which began with the Wellington Typographical Association in 1862 and were gradually combined into the New Zealand Printing and Related Trades Union. In 1995, this combined with the New Zealand Journalists and Graphic Process Union to form the New Zealand Printing, Packaging and Media Union which has now become a division of the New Zealand Engineers' Union (since 1996). The combined records of the successive unions have been deposited in the Victoria University of Wellington Library Labour Archives collection. The records of the Otago Typographical Association, and the Otago Branch of the Printing Union, are divided between the Dunedin Public Library and the Hocken Library of Otago University. Peter Franks is writing a history of the printing unions. Vivienne Porzsolt's typescript study, 'New Zealand printing unions in the 1920s and 1930s' (1982) is in the Turnbull Library's manuscript section.

     Baxter contributed a brief historical survey to McKay (1940), and there are two centennial histories of individual branches. P.J. Stewart published Type of a Century in 1974, recounting the history of printing in Dunedin and Otago from the workman's point of view, with a more systematic account of the Otago Typographical Association and its successors from 1873. The Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Printing and Related Trades Union published Centenary 1862-1962 in 1962, drawing upon the Wellington Typographical Union's Jubilee Souvenir 1862-1912 for the earliest years. The Jubilee Souvenir seems to have drawn heavily on oral histories, but it also made use of such union records as existed.

     Separate publications of the various unions, such as rulebooks and annual reports, made be found as individual items in library collections. The union records contain most of these publications, although many of the small local unions left no significant records.

     Complementing the union records are those of the Department of Labour. Such records as survive are held in the National Archives, although a substantial amount of the material of interest is in the files damaged in the Hope Gibbons Building fire of 1952. The files which may be relevant are those dealing with the Factories Act (L/NA/1), the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act (L/NA/3), and Apprenticeship and Awards (L/NA/4). The annual reports of the Department, from its first in 1893 ( AJHR H.10, 1893) publish statistical material on wage rates and employment levels, and occasionally include some brief information on conditions and accidents.

     A much more substantial source of information on conditions in the trade would be in the arguments presented to the Arbitration Court during award applications. The awards themselves, printed in the 'Book of Awards', correctly Awards, Recommendations, Agreements etc. (1894/1900-1936), and succeeding titles, do not always give information on specific points relating to conditions. When the award defines what is and what is not covered it often specifies particular aspects of the work; however much of the necessary detail will have been presented in evidence, spelled out by the union in its application and refuted by the employers as they can. It will sometimes be recorded in newspaper reports, but must usually be sought in the records of the Court (not always preserved), or more fruitfully, in the records of the union or of the employers. In the case of the first major claim before the Court in 1912, the unions (a recently federated association) printed their full argument, the New Zealand Federated Typographical Association's Dominion Award Dispute , giving considerable detail on the impact of the new typesetting technology. In 1922 they published the Case for Typographers , in another significant dispute, with an analysis of the employers' figures and arguments. These are the exception. The union journal Imprint (beginning in October 1923) regularly published summaries of the union case before the Court, and the Wellington Branch's short-lived Printers' Mallet (1966-68), likewise reported current developments in industrial relations. The new union journal, The Printed Word (1995-), follows this tradition.

     Modern occupational illnesses differ from those of the past: in place of lead poisoning, burns from lead squirts or acid splashes, and respiratory troubles from acid vapours for photo-engravers, Imprint was concerned with occupational overuse syndrome (OOS) for photo-typesetters, including effects on eyes and brains of overexposure to visual display terminals (vol.33 no.2 (March 1981) p.7), and The Printed Word (vol.1 no.7, June 1996, p.10) has an article 'Solvent-induced neurotoxicity—the new asbestos?' about neurological poisoning from toxic chemicals in processing machinery, especially when used within inadequately ventilated premises. For OOS, a more general example of many is an article by Christine Robertson in the Evening Standard , Palmerston North, 20 January 1997 (p.5), which deals with the suffering it causes, and the employers' obligations under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.

     For the period before the formal sources existed we must rely on informal accounts. The evidence given to the Sweating Commission of 1889-90 ( AJHR H.5, 1890) contains some extremely useful reports of the actual conditions experienced by men and women in some establishments, with some information also from management (notably George Whitcombe of Whitcombe & Tombs). The Pope, the Prelate and the Printer (1892) reports in detail the trial when Joseph Evison, manager of the Catholic Times , sued officials of the Wellington Typographical Society for libel for describing his management practices as 'sweating'; the resulting pamphlet gives much useful detail about the trade conditions of the time.

     For the earlier years a few sources, chiefly with anecdotes, are available. In 1886 the publishers of the Otago Daily Times issued a collection of 'newspaper reports and correspondence' on the 'strike of compositors' very recently concluded. There are few disputes in the newspaper trade which have been as clearly and impartially documented. Harvey's 'Editors and compositors: contemporary accounts of the nineteenth century New Zealand press' (1990) surveys some of the documentary sources which provide information. Through the Elibank Press, Harvey has also published Trials of the Colonial Printer (1985) which brings together anecdotes to illustrate the conditions under which the printers worked. McKay's 'Tales of the trade' (1940d) also brings together a collection of anecdotes gathered by interviews (McKay's extensive collection of unpublished materials was destroyed by fire in the late 1950s).

     The 1885 Government Printing Committee Report ( AJHR I.5, 1885) includes a detailed commentary on the conditions in the Government Printing Office, as well as comments on the work-flow and the possible benefits of contracting work out. This is the only analysis of conditions in any printing establishment to give such detail.

Economics

There is one recent survey of the economics of the New Zealand printing industry, prepared by Oliver for the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research in 1976. W.B. Sutch contributed an 'Economic survey' to McKay (1940).

     The article 'The printing and publishing industry of the Dominion: an analysis', in Printing Prestige (vol.1, Oct. 1935, pp.7-13) was a serious attempt to explore master printers' costs at the end of the Depression, to persuade them to charge high enough to cover their true costs, and not to undercut each other, either by intention or simply by poor cost-finding. Several articles in Printing Prestige , and subsequent Federation of Master Printers publications (1954-62) were devoted to improving printers' cost finding, as was J.B. Hindin's Simplified Cost Accounting Procedures for the Printing Trade (1958).

     Dennis McEldowney's chapter 'Publishing, patronage, literary magazines' in the Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English (1991) covers the economics of production, and the sources for its study, as part of its discussion of publishing. Before these there are occasional documents with valuable though often scrappy information and there are some modern studies which seek to bring together and analyse the available information.

     The theses, now published, of Rachel Salmond ( Government Printing in New Zealand, 1840 to 1843 , published 1995) and Kwasitsu (1996) provide some costings and similar information. Kwasitsu published 'An estimate of Charles Elliott's revenue from the Nelson Examiner' in 1985, using the data from his thesis. Cave in 'Advertising, circulation and profitability' (1990), tries to bring together information from studies of newspaper advertising and the available material on newspaper circulation. Harvey in 'Formula for success' in An Index of Civilisation (1993b) surveys the sources of data on the financial success of 19th-century newspapers, and in a separate but companion article, 'Economic aspects of 19th-century New Zealand newspapers' (1993a), presents most of the available data in tabulated form.

     The data used in these articles is largely drawn from the newspapers themselves, and various manuscript sources specific to individual newspapers. Examples are the letters of Sam Revans to H.S. Chapman, and of Chapman to his father in London, as background to the New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator , and the New Zealand Colonist Trustees' Minutes, all in the Turnbull Library Manuscripts section. The Colonist Trustees' Minutes were also used by Coleridge in a discussion of the Colonist in her paper 'Edward Catchpool' (1993), together with Catchpool's own ledger, also in the Turnbull Library.

     Coleridge has also published a substantial statistical study of the advertising in Wellington newspapers to 1859, Building a Paper Economy (1991), with a more discursive and theoretical discussion of the same data in 'Newspaper advertising in a pioneer colony' (1995), and a shorter study, 'Booktrade advertisements in Wellington newspapers 1840-1859' (1994) on a special aspect of this material.

     Some newspaper histories devote some space to the economics of the industry, although it is usually in the form of generalisations. An interesting exception is the Palmerston North Centennial Issue Evening Standard (1980) which includes a detailed analysis of the costings made at the time of one transfer of ownership. Similar documents may exist in the records of individual companies, more particularly of the conglomerates such as Independent Newspapers Ltd, but have not been made public. Correspondingly the survival of the July 1924 Dominion Tariff no.5 , issued by the New Zealand Master Printers' Association (to update an original of 1920) is an invaluable document, providing job-by-job prices itemised in precise detail.

     The best source for figures of actual costs involved in purchases of equipment and materials, and outlay on labour costs are in the reports on government printing. The initial costs, in the 1840s, are itemised in official documents printed in Salmond's thesis (cited above). A portion of these, with inventories and costings, were printed as part of the Copies or extracts of any correspondence relative to the New Zealand estimates in the (Great Britain) House of Commons Sessional Papers (1843, no.134, pp.55-59).

     The next important group of documents appear in the New Zealand Parliamentary papers, beginning in 1858 with the 'Report of the Printing Committee' ( AJHR F.3, 1858), with detailed costings and estimates of the printing costs. At the time, the recommendation was that an office need not be established. In 1862 the 'Report of the Board of Enquiry' ( AJHR D.7, 1862) recommended that a Printing Office should be established, and analysed the factors to be considered although it gives few detailed figures. The first Report of the Government Printing Department appeared in 1868 ( AJHR D.11, 1868) and gave useful information on the technical developments and problems, but also figures on printing volumes, expenditure on materials, wages, and so forth, which provide a regular series of figures throughout the history of the Printing Office (the 'shoulder number' has varied over the years). The 1885 Government Printing Committee Report ( AJHR I.5, 1885) includes, in the minutes of evidence, an analysis of the reasons why printing

by outside contracts would be more expensive.

     The economic position of the industry as a whole was among the topics addressed by the Tariff Commission of 1895. The Tariff Commission Report and minutes of evidence ( AJHR H.2, 1895) includes some very useful detail on what was imported (such as matrices of advertising matter, printing blocks and printed sheets of letterheads and invoices) and its relationship with the manufacturing capabilities of the New Zealand industry. The evidence is almost entirely general in form, not including figures of costs and volumes, but does provide some very useful documentation of the industry's problems. The later Commissions, in 1927 and 1934, also received evidence on the impact of preferential tariffs on the industry, but no evidence was printed in the reports.

     In the 19th century the AJHR periodically printed various government returns with statistical or financial data. One such relevant for printing history is the Return Showing Amounts Paid to Newspapers for Advertising and Printing , the earliest of which appears in 1872 ( AJHR G.22, 1872). Equivalent reports in later years might appear with different titles and different shoulder numbers. The individual Provincial Councils (1853-75) might from time to time ask for similar returns, which would be printed in the relevant Provincial Council proceedings.

     The Industries Development Commission Inquiry in 1976 involved substantial efforts by different sectors of the book production industry to make clear the difficulties they were being subjected to by current conditions, and to appeal for shifts in government policy settings, or for subsidies comparable to those currently being paid by the Australian Government to its own book-printers. The submissions, reprinted in the report (1978), contain much of value. The actual result of the inquiry was, however, as Hugh Price (1982) noted, that nothing happened at all.

     Significant developments in technology and in the financial environments can be followed in the business press. Within New Zealand this is indexed by Newzindex , available on paper since 1979, and online since 1987.

Government regulation

There has been no general survey of government regulation and control of the printing industry in New Zealand. Censorship, since the earliest years, has been a matter of controlling content rather than access to the means of reproduction, and the historical surveys have naturally taken the same direction. There have been some studies of the conflicts of the first years, including Kennett's Unsung Hero (1991), G.M. Meiklejohn's Early Conflicts of Press and Government (1953), and Salmond's 'Continuing conflict of press and government' (1990), and her thesis (1995).

     The only significant legislation to control the printing industry in New Zealand has been the Printers and Newspapers Registration Act 1868; this laid down the requirement that all newspapers be registered, together with the names of the owners and the printers, that printing presses should be registered, and the printer's name and address should be on all printed documents. With minor amendments these provisions remained until the Newspapers and Printers Act 1955, which dropped the requirement that presses be registered. These registrations are held at the High Court (originally Supreme Court) registries throughout the country, where they should provide a source of information on the ownership of presses.

     Day's The Making of the New Zealand Press (1990) is the only significant study of the relation between the newspaper industry and the government operated telegraph service, since access to the press agency telegrams was a significant economic asset. The political involvement of the newspaper owners is the principal theme of Day's book, but he also considers the effect of government engagement and political influence in the production cycle. Harvey's article 'The power of the press in colonial New Zealand' (1996) argues for greater scepticism about the newspaper industry's claims to political influence.

     Government regulation of working conditions, under the Factories Act, and under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, are most usefully considered under 'Trade conditions' (above), and the effects of economic controls (such as customs tariffs) under 'Economics' (also above).

     One should consider here the May 1931 reduction of wage rates in the public service, with its impact upon the Government Printing Office, and the 1936 Wages Act, which brought about the restoration of previous wage levels, at the end of the Great Depression. The regulation of paper use at the beginning of World War II acted as an indirect form of censorship, as for example in the forcing of the closure of the left-of-centre periodical Tomorrow , through denying it supplies of paper.

Private printing

The notion of a private press is at best ambiguous, and the vagaries of categorical definition are no less evident here in New Zealand. By chance the most comprehensive book on the general subject is by an author who lived and worked for a time as Professor of Librarianship at Victoria University of Wellington during the 1980s. In Private Presses (2nd ed. 1983) Cave acknowledges the difficulties of defining a subject where 'waywardness and eccentricity are in the traditions of the material'. As a broad generalisation, he suggests that a private press is an unofficial press that runs not for profit, but to produce works of some aesthetic merit for a restricted audience. The distinction he makes, that the same press prints the material as publishes it, had until the 1980s little relevance in New Zealand, where most publishers had their own printing arm. Enthusiasm for printing is clearly a prerequisite and most presses are informed by a strong craft ethic. The anachronism that is the hand press has also increasingly come to be associated with the reprinting of rare or obscure texts.

     Aside from half a chapter in Cave's book (pp.284-91), there is little in the way of general reference material concerning private presses in New Zealand. Eugene Grayland notes in Private Presses: Their Contributions to Literature and Typography (1947) their role in 'developing our native literature', but offers little extra detail. Lawlor also devotes chapter 2, part 2 of his book of reminiscences Books and Bookmen (1954) to private presses. Philip Parr, in 'History of hobby printing in Australasia' (1980), provides a brief survey of the completely 'not-for-profit' group of presses in both Australia and New Zealand. In Vinculum 8 Parr offers the following definition of 'Private Printing in New Zealand': 'There is a PRIVATE PRESS when the operator runs it:—for his own enjoyment, being in full control of every choice, with persistent effort to improve techniques, without seeking financial gain (although he may sell some items to help cover costs)'.

     Specific presses singled out by Cave were the early Caxton Press, Nag's Head Press, Wai-te-ata Press, Eugene Grayland's Colenso Press, Noel Hoggard's Handcraft Press and Hawk Press. To this list, Lawlor added Lowry's Unicorn Press, Ron Holloway's Griffin Press, and the Pelorus and Pegasus Presses. The last named of these seems hard to reconcile with most accepted definitions of private press, although Pegasus was clearly well regarded for the standard of its press work. The flamboyant Geoffrey Count Potocki de Montalk also operated a number of private presses, but mostly abroad—see his Myself as Printer , (1970). Noel Waite's PhD thesis 'Adventure and art: literature publishing in Christchurch 1934-95' (1997) provides histories and checklists of the Caxton, Pegasus, Nag's Head, Hawk and Hazard Presses, as well as providing a wider infrastructural context. Waite also has a brief checklist for the Arbor Press. The remarkable duo behind the Caxton Press, Denis Glover and Leo Bensemann, accounted for a number of small presses. Bensemann's Huntsbury Press occupied his retirement, while Glover in Wellington had a series of presses: Catspaw, Mermaid and Capricorn.

     Two books that appeared on the occasion of the Auckland Festival are useful guides to the activities of the Auckland presses of the 1950s: Writing in Auckland by J.C. Reid, an exhibition arranged by the Auckland Public Libraries (1955), and Printed in Auckland (1956). An article in the latter entitled 'Some Auckland presses of today' describes how Ron Holloway's Griffin Press merged with Lowry's Unicorn in 1938, and Lowry went on to establish Pelorus Press (1947) and later the Pilgrim Press. Although these presses were more commercial in nature, A.R.D. Fairburn's The Sky is a Limpet (1939) and How to Ride a Bicycle in Seventeen Lovely Colours (1946) can fairly be labelled private press offerings.

     Noel Hoggard (1912-75) was a most dogged and prolific private press operator with his Handcraft Press. His hand-set publications, which were generally of a literary nature, included The Maorilander , Spilt Ink (1932), New Triad (1937), and Arena (1946-75) which ran to 81 issues. Stephen Hamilton's PhD thesis 'New Zealand English language periodicals of literary interest active 1920s-60s' (1996) details the contents of these journals. In the first ten years of his press Hoggard also published 40 books of poetry and essays, and introduced three local newspapers.

     In the 1960s several 'bibliographical' presses were established by those wishing, among other things, to teach the methods of textual transmission in the medium of print as practised in the handpress era. Although these presses were attached to institutions of learning, they were run by enthusiasts, whose productions went beyond the call of duty. The first of these was W.J. Cameron, who in 1960 issued a series of bibliographical pamphlets printed by students on the Albion handpress in the Department of English, University of Auckland. Next, in 1961, came the Bibliography Room, since 1966 located in the University of Otago Library, founded by David Esplin and Keith Maslen. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Maslen printed works by a number of New Zealand poets, including James K. Baxter's The Lion Skin (1967) and Jerusalem Sonnets (1971). The most distinguished and productive of these presses was Wai-te-ata Press under D.F. McKenzie, one-time professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington. The Wai-te-ata Press 1962-92 (1992) provides a comprehensive checklist of that press's activities. Massey University also has a Bibliography Room. Many other educational institutions from time to time have had what might be called hobby presses.

     The 1970s saw a return to private presses by a generation that felt excluded from mainstream publications. This coincided with the availability of relatively cheap hand presses which were no longer required with the increasing move to offset printing. These offered the possibility of publication with full control over production at an affordable price. It also accorded with a renewal of interest in craft values. Notable amongst these were Bruce Mitcalfe's idiosyncratic Coromandel Press and Alan Loney's Hawk Press. From about 1975 until the early 1990s under the imprint of Hawk Press Alan Loney printed a series of works, mainly by contemporary New Zealand poets, distinguished by the high quality of design and workmanship. Later, in the 1980s, came Warwick Jordan's Hard Echo Press. The latter achieved the feat of hand-setting an entire novel, Mike Johnson's Lear (1986).

     Walter Lemm (Imp Press, Auckland) founded the Association of Handcraft Printers in 1973, and both are still going strong. The list of members of May 1995 names 73 private (as opposed to institutional) New Zealand members and their presses. The biennial Vinculum , made up of leaves contributed by members as a showcase of their work, reached no.46 in December 1996. The Association's quarterly newsletter includes news of members' doings. A catalogue of the books belonging to the library of the Association of Handcraft Printers as of July 1993 was issued in 1993 by the Librarian, John Denny, from his Puriri Press, Auckland. Noteworthy members, not elsewhere mentioned in this brief survey, include Charles Alldritt, Auckland; the Brebners, whose john allison/homeprint presses were run first from the Manawatu Museum and then from their home in Feilding; Bruce Grenville, Sedang Press, Auckland; Tony King, Ark Press, Wellington; Phil Parr, joint founder/patron, Aspect Press, Levin; Sydney J. Shep and Timothy Hurd, Silent Isle Press (Dr Shep also currently manages the Wai-te-ata Press); and Mark K. Venables, Mt St John Press, Auckland. Robert S. (Bob) Gormack, at the Nag's Head Press, Christchurch, has long been noted for his impeccable printing and the special flavour of his writing, which may be exemplified by The Centennial History of Barnego Flat (general editor, E. Dadds [Robert Gormack], Part 1, 1964). For further information see Gormack (1992). The Ferrymead Printing Society at the Ferrymead Print Shop, Christchurch, also deserves particular mention.

     A resurgence in the book arts in the 1980s has seen an increase in small presses committed to high quality, but also willing to be experimental. Notable amongst these were Tara McLeod's Pear Tree Press, John Denny's Puriri Press, and Alan Loney's latest efforts at the Black Light and the Holloway Presses—the latter using materials transferred from the Griffin Press, when in 1994 the Holloway Press was established on the Tamaki Campus of the University of Auckland. The long-lived Griffin Press of Ronald and Kay Holloway features in the latter's autobiography (1994). In 1989, Alan Loney founded the Book Arts Society, which the following year published a limited edition, designed, printed and bound by Alan Loney at Black Light Press, of Art of the Book (1990). The catalogue was compiled by Rowan Gibbs. The Society also issues a newsletter.

     It has to be admitted that the work of private printers is variable in quality. The typographical renaissance of the late 1940s in New Zealand owed more to printers, such as Denis Glover and others at the Caxton Press, who made their bread and butter by commercial printing, but took pains to produce some work to the highest possible artistic standard, regardless of the financial return. Their example may serve to underline the point that where such achievements are concerned the dividing line between commercial and private printers can be hard to draw.