The first New Zealand printers were naturally involved in printing the scriptures and hymns for Maori converts, and for many years after 1840 most of the numerous books about New Zealand were published in England. In fact (apart from pamphlets) there was not much local publishing before the eighties; but in the early forties pamphlets were being produced mainly from newspaper offices (the New Zealander in Auckland and the Spectator in Wellington). The usual subjects were politics and religion, but in 1843 the first volume of poetry appeared entitled New Zealand, a poem in three cantos by R. C. Joplin. Apart from translations from the Scriptures, the first substantial book printed and published in New Zealand was William William's Dictionary of the New Zealand Language which appeared at Paihia in 1844. The first book of any size to be published in Wellington appeared in 1847, the first in Auckland in 1848; in Dunedin in 1849 appeared the first recorded booklet in Otago; 1851 saw the appearance in Lyttelton of the first four Canterbury pamphlets. An early and very important New Zealand publication was Poems Traditions and Chants of the Maoris, set down in Maori by Sir George Grey, and published by Robert Stokes of the New Zealand Spectator in 1853. By 1886 two-thirds of the books and pamphlets being written about New Zealand were being published in the country, but the proportion of books published overseas remained almost as considerable till the First World War.
The oldest surviving New Zealand publisher, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, began in Christchurch in 1882 as a partnership of George Whitcombe, who had been a bookseller, and George Tombs, a printer. Tombs had formerly published a few booklets. The first books published by the firm, according to Hocken, were Recollections by Alfred Cox and a work by Miss Johanne Lohse entitled Mistaken Views on the Education of Girls. It is certain, however, that among its very early publications in the eighties was a series of copy books. Educational publishing has always been the mainstay of Whitcombe and Tombs and several of its school books have run to more than 300,000 copies, and a few primers to more than half a million. Apart from purely educational publishing, Whitcombe's built up a very large general list and for many years had no real competitors as publishers until the rise of A. H. and A. W. Reed in the nineteen thirties.
Reed's published their first pamphlet in 1923 and their first major book The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden in 1932. Since then they have published nearly 1,000 books; of these 160 have been written by one or other of the Reed partners (uncle and nephew). Beginning as publishers of religious books, Reed's have expanded into every field, and the firm's big list of books on sports reflects a strong New Zealand interest.
Most New Zealand publishers have been booksellers too. The Caxton Press, founded in 1934 by Denis Glover, are Christchurch publishers who are printers but not booksellers. In the nineteen thirties and forties the Caxton Press made a major contribution to New Zealand publishing by producing – without the subsidies which have attended publication of verse in the 1950s and 60s – a series of small volumes of poetry. These certainly contained some of the best verse which has been written here – notably by Fairburn, Mason, Glover, and Curnow. They also produced conditions under which poets were stimulated to write. Poets wrote knowing that good work would be well printed by Caxton.
Scarcely less important was the fact that Denis Glover at the Caxton Press brought much taste and discrimination into the printing of New Zealand books. An equally high standard marked the typography of the centennial volumes produced in 1940 for the Department of Internal Affairs, which had an influence for the better in this field. The Government Printer had always produced a number of general volumes, particularly books on science, and with the cooperation of the Education Department, has since the last war established a virtual monopoly of publishing for primary schools. Much active local publishing is also done for the secondary schools where perhaps 20 per cent of the text books used are published in New Zealand.
Although over 2,000 books and booklets were recorded as being in print in New Zealand in 1961, publishing of books has always been in a relatively few hands. There are at present only seven firms producing books in any number and two of these, Whitcombe's and Reed's, are by far the largest. Paul's Book Arcade (now Blackwood and Janet Paul Ltd.), the Pegasus Press, and Price Milburn have fairly recently come into the field. The period since the war has been notable for an increase in the number of novels and biographies published locally. Such books had been produced in New Zealand up to the turn of the century, but from then till 1950 authors usually turned to English publishers. The practice of publishing jointly with an English publisher, begun in the nineteen thirties, has been extended. The period since the war has also seen the very slow beginnings of local publishing for children. The publication of verse has continued, usually with the assistance of the New Zealand Literary Fund, whose help to publishers has undoubtedly ensured the publication of many books (prose as well as verse) which would not otherwise have found their way to print. It is nevertheless true that the supposedly greater prestige of overseas publication still persuades many good authors to seek a British publisher first.
The following table gives the number of new titles published in recent years in New Zealand, and a comparison is given with Canada, Australia, and South Africa, all countries which depend mainly on imports for their reading.
Any book or pamphlet containing five or more pages complete in itself as a single publication is included in this table. Official publications are not included in the Australian, Canadian, or South African figures, but most New Zealand official publications are included. Even so, the New Zealand production of titles is fairly high considering the population. Though the local publishing trade does not supply as large a proportion of its booksellers' stock as does the Australian publishing trade to its bookshops, the sales of local books have greatly increased recently.
| New Zealand | Australia | Canada (20 per Cent in French) | South Africa (English Language Only | |
| 1950 | 262 | 745 | .. | 612 |
| 1951 | 267 | 688 | .. | 626 |
| 1952 | 297 | 627 | .. | 477 |
| 1953 | 294 | 516 | .. | 583 |
| 1954 | 335 | 538 | .. | 637 |
| 1955 | 480 | 552 | 1,094 | 824 |
| 1956 | 456 | 643 | 1,522 | 755 |
| 1957 | 488 | 663 | 2,413 | 928 |
| 1958 | 412 | 720 | 1,537 | 891 |
| 1959 | 462 | 812 | 2,542 | 1,595 |
| 1960 | 546 | 830 | 2,743 | 1,472 |
(More recent figures are not available. – Ed.)
Bookselling in New Zealand obviously developed in a considerable way even during the pioneering era. According to the 1861 census there were 10 booksellers in Christchurch which then had a population of 3,205. Moreover, its bookshops had big stocks. J. Hughes of Cashel Street, Christchurch, advertised in the Southern Provinces Almanack for 1865 that he had – “BOOKS. Upwards of 30,000 Volumes in Stock including Standard Works in History, Biography, Travels, Science, Divinity, and Fiction”.
The craving of the New Zealander for the printed word continued. In 1901 Hamilton, with a population of 1,000, had two bookshops (and two daily newspapers). The proportion of booksellers to the population is still high, and the average purchase of books per head compares very favourably with other countries of the British Commonwealth, being considerably in advance of Australia. The average New Zealander probably spends or has spent about 35s. on books.
At various periods since 1940 the book trade has had to contend with import licensing which has been applied, usually with no great severity, to books. Books were exempted from licensing in 1963.
Censorship by the Customs Department has long been applied to books entering New Zealand, and this has stopped a number of books from entering the country. It must be said that this power has been exercised with more discretion than in Australia, though an early advisory committee, on which booksellers were represented, seems to have been less tolerant in the twenties.
Decisions of the Customs Department were for a number of years reviewed by a non-governmental Advisory Committee and were subject to an appeal to the Courts; but few cases were in fact brought before them. A notable exception was Lolita, which was declared indecent first by the Supreme Court and then by a majority in the Court of Appeal in 1960. In 1963 the Indecent Publications Act of 1910 was replaced by new legislation. Much public and particularly newspaper objection was made to the setting up of a tribunal to determine indecency and specially to the power conferred on it to supress publication of its proceedings in the newspapers (and indeed of the name of the book concerned) unless “a difficult or important question” was being considered. The more liberal tone of the new legislation therefore escaped notice, perhaps fortunately for the cause of freedom. Every decision of the tribunal must be published in the New Zealand Gazette. (NOTE—On 11 August 1964, by a majority decision and without qualification, the tribunal found Lolita was “not indecent”. The chairman, Mr Justice A. P. Blair, dissenting, expressed the opinion that the book should be made available to persons over the age of 18 years. Ed.)
Most New Zealand booksellers are members of the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand, founded in 1921 with a membership now of over 300. This organisation represents booksellers in approaches to Government over such matters as censorship and import licensing, and is also concerned with price fixing. Its actions in this regard were in 1961 challenged successfully by the Trade Practices Commission which heard a great deal of evidence and recorded the surprising opinion that it did “not believe for one moment that booksellers have any decisive or particular influence on the book buying propensities and the reading habits of New Zealanders”. This decision was revised on appeal in 1962.
The position of the bookseller (who caters for a minority, provides a complex service, and carries a very wide variety of stock) has been threatened everywhere by the competition of other forms of entertainment, by the wide dispersion of the sale of paperback books; and (especially in New Zealand) by a vast increase in the sale of magazines. Large shops both in England and in New Zealand are tending to mix their stock with other, and presumably more profitable, forms of merchandise. But there is no reason to expect any dramatic change in the position of bookselling and publishing in New Zealand, apart from the possible repercussions of the decision of the Trade Practices Tribunal. Nevertheless, there are indications that the retail book trade, as in England and the United States, may well have difficulty in maintaining its present position in the modern commercial world.
by David Blackwood Paul, M.A., LL.B. (1908–65), Bookseller and Publisher, Hamilton.