Printing Department.

The value of work done during the year represents £27,527 18s 9d, and the salaries and wages paid amount to £18,408 18s 6d. The number of entries in the order-book was 2,514, and the number of copies printed 28,979,915. The latter number includes 16,000,000 telegraph forms, which were printed by this department in the earlier part of last year.

The return of the number of employes during each month of the year shows an average per month of 149; that for the previous year was 137. The highest number employed was 159, and the lowest 143.

Among the works issued from the Government press during the past year may be mentioned the concluding volume of the reprint of the early Parliamentary Debates, edited by the late Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald; the first volume of White's Ancient History of the Maori (of which there are three more now in the press); the Handbook of New Zealand Mines (with maps and illustrations); two works on the Eruption at Tarawera— one by S. Percy Smith, Assistant Surveyor-General, and the other by Professor F. W. Hutton; an account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants, by W. M. Maskell; and a work on the Rudiments of New Zealand Sociology, by Mr James H. Pope, entitled « The State. »

During the past year, three of the old printing machines which have been in use for many years have been disposed of, and replaced by new ones. The machinery in the binding branch has also been added to by the introduction of one of Brehmer's thread book-sewing machines and two wire stitching machines.

Under « Working Expenses »in the balancesheet attached to this report it will be noted that the gas consumed amounted to £505 1s 4d, notwithstanding that two of the composingrooms are lighted with electric lamps. This large consumption is partly due to the use of gas for driving and heating purposes, and partly also to the fact that in some portions of the present building gas has to be kept burning all day owing to deficient windowlight. The rent of meters costs £9 4s per annum, or nearly 2 per cent. on cost of gas consumed. The indifferent light obtained from gas compared to that from electricity, to say nothing of the cost, have induced the Government to light the new Printing Office entirely by the latter process, gas only being used for heating-purposes by the electrotyper and bookbinders.

The number of vouchers for printing and advertising examined during the year by the Accountant was 4,373, the deductions made therefrom £216 9s 1d, and the total amount passed for payment £14,736 9s 6d. The printing of the electoral rolls for the recent general election cost somewhat less than in 1884, the tenders in the different electoral districts ranging from 5s 10d to 20s per page. The rolls were set to a pattern furnished by this department, by which a saving in space of at least forty pages was effected.