In another page, we have some comments on the report
and evidence presented to the House of Commons by the Select Committee on Miscel- laneous Expenditure, and we have taken the Stationery Offico as an ex- ample to illustrate some of our positions: the subjoined passages from the evidence of Mr. M`Culloch, the eminent and laborious head of that office, afford further illustrations. The reader, however, will find that they are interesting in themselves.
"Since the year 1838, it appears that there has been a very great increase in the amount for printing and stationer? "—" Not since the year 1838; since the year 1843-44 there has been a great increase, but from 1839 to 1843 the amount declined: in 1839 it was 208,0001., and in 1842-43 it was under 200,0001." * •
" Will you be so kind as to explain what has been the cause of the recent in- crease in the estimate ?"—" The principal cause of the increase has been the enormous increase in the printing, and also the addition of new offices supplied with stationery from the Stationery Office." • • • " What are the other causes of the greatly augmented expenditure ?"—" They are mostly the new commissions of inquiry, which cost very little for station- ery, but are generally very expensive in printing." "Can you state how much they have augmented the expense of printing? "— " I should not be surprised if the Sanatory printing were to come to 10,0001. or 12,0001. And when I came to the Stationery Office in 1838 we supplied 143 offices with stationery; now we supply 217 offices or thereabouts. A good num- ber of those offices repay us, so that our estimate does not show what the total cost of stationery is to the public." "Have you found since you have supplied the offices, that there has been a di- minution of expense for stationery for those offices? "—' Yes. In proof of that I may state, that during the time the charge for stationery was being reduced to the public, the quantity we supplied was very much increased; for example, in 1839-40 there was a large printing-office carried on in the Excise, which cost the public about 3,0001. or 4,0001. a year; that was added to the Stationery Office, and it did not increase our expense at all. We saved the entire sum that it cost the public out of the decreased cost of the paper." " Was there not in your office a department specially constituted for examining and controlling the expense of printing? "—" There is a department in our office for the examination of the printers' accounts: it is managed by one of the cleverest men, I take it, in printing; a person conversant with all the details of printing; and if you wish for any information about the printing, Mr. Rapley will give it "Since Mr. Rapley's appointment, have you made any estimate of the percent- age of diminution of the cost of printing? "—" I should think it has been 25 or 80 per cent since 1833. The first account he examined of Hansard's he took 7,0001. off." "He was appointed in consequence of a Parliamentary inquiry ? "—" Yes." "Mr. Rapley did not before that period belong to the Stationery Office?"—" No, he was a professed printer; and none but a printer can examine a printer's ac- counts: it is a mere farce to attempt to examine them by any other person." " Is there not reason to suppose that such a control over offices not at present under your superintendence would introduce the same result in diminishing the cost?"—" I have not the slightest doubt of it. I believe an immense sum might be saved in those offices which we do not supply with stationery. We do not supply half the Colonies." "How arc they supplied ?"—"I do not know. If we added to this estimate the sums which are repaid to us, it would show that the cost of the stationery under the control of the Stationery Office was about 260,0001.: you must add 50,0001. or 60,0001. to the estimate in order to cover the total cost of the sta- tionery we supply."
"Does your office exercise any control over the amount of stationery supplied to other departments?"—" Yes; [ endeavour to exercise as much control as I can; and if anything appears excessive in quantity, or better in quality than is reason- able, I remonstrate, and sometimes refuse to supply it; and if the authorities in the offices which have made a demand have been dissatisfied with my decision, they have appealed to the Treasury. I have very seldom done that with regard to any office of which a Cabinet Minister was the head; but as regards all the other offices, I have done it; and I have prevented the use of mourning stationery and black-edged paper in every office, except an office that a Cabinet Minister was
connected with." • • e " You supply some of the Colonies? "—" Yes; we supply the Ionian Islands, the Australian Colonies, the Mauritius, and Ceylon; but we do not supply the Canadas, and we do not supply the West India Islands." " Do you supply New South Wales?"—" Yes; but all these repay us, and do not appear in our estimate." not a new source of expense accrued to you in the last year or two, under the act of the 9th and 10th Victoria, relating to preliminary inquiries con- ducted under the Woods and Forests, and the Admiralty, in the case of private bills ?"—" Yes, and a very heavy expense too: that is one of the prominent causes of the increase of the expense of printing for Parliament." "Is the expenditure borne out of the public purse, or does it fall upon the pri-
vate companies which solicit bills? , The expense of printing those reports that are made to the Railway Board, the Board of Works, and Admiralty, upon strictly private matters, such as cemeteries at Nottingham, gas-works at Edin- burgh, and quays at the Bromielaw, is thrown upon the public. In the first year in which that cost was introduced, the expense came to about 6,5001.; and last year the expense would be about 10,0001. for printing alone."
"Can you form any opinion whether one person in 100, or one person in 800, ever reads those reports ?"—" I do not think one person in the empire ever reads a line of them, unless it be the persons who are interested in the particular place to which the bill relates."
"But generally do not you imagine that greater expense is incurred by printing voluminous appendices to reports, which attract very little attention and are very seldom perused ?"—" Yes, they seem to weigh down the report: the report is ordinarily. very short, and then a great quantity of what appears to be irrelevant
evidence is added to it." • • ' " There is no competition permitted for the printing of Parliamentary papers?" —"No; when Messrs. Hansard were appointed by the House of Commons, the House allowed them to charge certain rates, which cost the public considerably more than they could get the same thing done for by other printers."
"Can you form an estimate of the expense of that? "—" Yes; I have brought a memorandum which I gave to Mr. Trevelyan shortly after he was appointed Se- cretary to the Treasury, to show what the difference of cost was. Here is a little account of the comparative cost of the composition of an ordinary sheet of Parlia- mentary paper by Messrs. Hansard and Messrs. Clowes. These are Messrs. Han. sard's charges: composition, 10a, reading, 2s. 6d., profit and loss 50 per cent, or 6s. 3c1.; altogether 18s. ed. That is the general average, witbout allowing for any corrections. If Messrs. Clowes set up the same sheet of Parliamentary paper, their charge is as follows: composition, 10s., reading, 2s. 6d., profit and loss 10 per cent, or 18. 3d., making a total of 13s. 9c1.; they charge for profit and loss ls. 3d. instead of 6s. 3d., making a difference of 5s. in the setting up of an ordinary sheet of Parliamentary paper."
"-How many sheets do you imagine are set np by Messrs. Hansard? "—" As enormous number of sheets. The saving would be about 5,0001. or 6,0001. a year."
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