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CONTE1TTS
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LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 554 BOOKS AND RUMO...
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St. Dunstan's House, E.C. May 15, 1890.
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IT often happens that zealous public off...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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554 The Publishers' Circular May 15 , i 890 ¦^^— ¦! 1 . . 1 . L ¦ ¦ . . . -.- .
Conte1tts
CONTE 1 TTS
Literary Intelligence 554 Books And Rumo...
LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 554 BOOKS AND RUMOURS OF BOOKS 555 NOTES AND NEWS , 558
AMERICAN NOTES AND NE WS .. 561 BOOKSELLERS OF TO-DAY .--IV . MR . SAMUEL MULLEN 562
EDWARD AUGUSTUS PETHEFUfV 563 HOW TO FURNISH A STUDY 563 j THE LAW OF NEWSPAPER LIBEL ., 564 !
THE ART OF AUTHORSHIP 565 A MANUAL OF TYPOGRAPHY 566 ARTISTIC COPYRIGHT 566
THE STATESMAN'S YEAR-BOOK 567 THE PARCHMENT DEALERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES , 567
THE LONDON" BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION IN ' 1852 568 THE HYMNAL COMPANION TO THE BOOK OF '
COMMON PRAYER 509 A GLIMPSE OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT .... 569
THE PREDICAMENT OF PERSONS NOT LITERARY 570 A GLIMPSE OF GEORGE MACDONALD 57 o IN MEMORIAM 570
TRADE INTELLIGENCE 571 BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES 574 REVIEWS , & c 579
INDEX TO BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN BETWEEN APRIL 15 & 30 584 BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN FROM
APRIL 15 TO 30 586 AMERICAN NEW BOOKS 591 NEW BOOKS AND BOOKS LATELY PUB
LISHED ............ 592 MISCELLANEOUS 642 BUSINESS CARDS 673
BUSINESS FOR SALE 673 ASSISTANT WANTED , 677 SITUATIONS WANTED 677
BOOKS FOR SALE ., % 679-682 BOOKS WANTED TO PURCHASE 682
St. Dunstan's House, E.C. May 15, 1890.
St . Dunstan ' s House , E . C . May 15 , 1890 .
It Often Happens That Zealous Public Off...
IT often happens that zealous public officials are inclined to interpret the law in a
manner which is both harsh and unjust , and ; the man who refuses tamely to submit to
demands of this kind is , in our judgment , a benefactor of the whole community . Our j
attention has been called during the last two or three days to a case in point which has
just been settled in New Zealand , and we think the matter is worthy of prominent
notice , since the question in dispute is one which directly concerns the interests of the
publishing and bookselling trades . Briefly stated , the circumstances to which we refer
were as follows : —Last November , Messrs . Stone < fc Son , of Dunedin , imported from
London a number of cloth covers in which to bind the well-known * Otago and Southland !
Directory , ' of which they are the publishers . On the arrival , however , of the goods in the
colony , the Collector of Customs levied duty to the amount of ten guineas , and this sum ,
was duly paid , though of course under protest . Legal proceedings were subsequently
instituted , and in March the case came up for hearing at the Resident Magistrate ' s Court .
Sir Robert Stout , who appeared for the plaintiff , stated that Messrs . Stone brought
the action , not simply to recover the money , but in order that the precise meaning of the
term ' stationery , ' as employed in the Customs Act , might once for all be determined . The
duty had been levied under that head , and the plaintiffs were prepared to bring evidence
to sltow that book-covers could not with justice be rightly so described . Mr . Stone ,
Mr . Caffin ( Messrs . Wise , Oaffin & Co . ) , and one or two well-known bookbinders were then
examined , and almost the whole of the evidence went to prove that the articles in
question had never been regarded as stationery in the trade . The opposing counsel contended
that the only bookbinders' materials admitted free were those which were expressly
mentioned by the Act , and book-covers were not found in the official list . The gist of his
| argument consisted in the assertion that whilst cloth and millboard were not liable to duty Vas
separate articles , yet , if they were imported in a manufactured form , as in the present
instance , then the authorities at the Custom House were within their rights in levying a
charge upon them . The presiding magistrate took time to
consider his decision , and in giving judgment he ably reviewed the whole case . He drew
attention to the fact that the witnesses disagreed as to whether book-covers are regarded
in the trade as stationery . If left to the evidence alone it would go against the Customs ,
as it had been laid down as a rule in these cases that , if an article was not brought clearly
within the official description , the public were entitled to the benefit of a doubt ; therefore ,
if honest evidence was contradictory , as in this instance , judgment must be given for the
plaintiffs . Honest evidence , we may here interpolate , is sometimes ill-informed , and
from the printed reports , the whole weight of the testimony brought into court was
distinctly in favour of Messrs . Stone ' s con tention . Indeed , so far as we can gather ,
the solitary witness who took the opposite view was a stationer who had only been
connected with the trade five years , and who admitted that he had received no training in
it . The magistrate had evidently employed
the interval between the first and second
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Citation
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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), May 15, 1890, page 554, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15051890/page/4/
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