Vol. 170 No. 4
I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £51,710 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1959, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Ordnance Survey and of Minor Services including the Facsimile Reproduction of Ancient Manuscripts.
The present position is that it is possible, for a compounded fee, to get permission from the Minister to publish handmade copies of ordnance survey publications. The copies in which I am interested, however, are machine made copies, photostats, and I am interested in them, first, when there has been work done on the ordnance sheet and, secondly, I am interested only in parts of the ordnance sheets, not the full sheets. It very often happens that in engineers' offices, in legal offices and also in respect of submissions to local authorities, it is necessary to submit marked ordnance maps. If, for example, a poor law valuation is to be divided, then a marked tracing has to be submitted to the local authority and has to come forward to the Valuation Office very often in relation to a map on a deed. The map consists of the ordnance sheet duly marked and then when the deed has to be copied and copies of the deed supplied it is not possible at present to photostat that map.
I want to make a plea to the Minister to adopt here a system by virtue of which professional people, be they engineers, solicitors or others, will be able, under strict rules, to pay a compounded fee for the copyright of copying, by photostat or other mechanical process, marked ordnance maps. I want to make it certain that such people cannot sell the ordnance map as such and, therefore, I suggest it should only be part of the map.
I make the suggestion in the interests of accuracy. If a map has to be copied by hand, as is permitted, there is a danger of inaccuracies. If it is photostated there cannot be any inaccuracy and it is often most important that in relation to deeds and in relation to apportionments of valuations, and so on, it would be possible to utilise the marked ordnance sheet in the way I have indicated. The Minister would lose nothing by it no matter what he may be told, because if the permission is given the Minister will get the compounded fee and if the permission is not given the copy will be made by hand with all the additional trouble and danger of inaccuracy that will involve.
I do not know much about the technical part of the process Deputy Sweetman has been discussing but I do know the authorities of the Ordnance Survey would be quite willing to discuss a proposition of that kind from any professional organisation, and I would put it to Deputy Sweetman that perhaps he could get his colleagues in the profession to approach the Ordnance Survey authorities and discuss the matter with them.
The Minister will have no objection?
None whatever.
