REVISED STATUTES.
In conformity to a requirement contained in the act of 1881, concerning the publication of the new revised statutes, I appointed the gentlemen composing the Board of Revision, Commissioners to prepare these statutes for publication and to Superintend the publication thereof. The last delivery of the copies required by law to be filed in the Clerks' offices of the several Counties was made in July, 1882.
The act of 1881 provided that the Commissioners should hold their positions until the first day of November of that year, and that the Commissioners and the Governor should, on the final adjournment of the General Assembly, advertise for bids for the printing and delivery of the statutes. A clause required the Commissioners to annotate the contents of the volume, so as to show, by proper reference, the time when all statutes in eluded in the volume went into force.
A literal compliance with the terms of the aet Of 1881, with respect, to the time for advertising for bids, was found to be impossible. The work assigned to the Commissioners could not, by the utmost labor they could bestow, be completed within the time prescribed, and no intelligent bid or bid at all favorable to the State could have been expected had bids been solicited when the work was in the incomplete condition it was at the time of the adjournment of the Legislature. Besides, the volume containing the session arts of 1881 was so large, on account of the bills brought before the Legislature by the Board for the revision of laws, that the printing could not be completed until a period much later than had been usual in the printing of session acts Hence the annotation of the time when the acts passed at the session of 1881 took effect could not be made as early as the Legislature had contemplated. When the time fixed for the expiration of the offices of the Commissioners arrived they, therefore, from public motives and at much personal inconvenience, continued in the performance of their labor, without any provision for further compensation, until the work contemplated by law had been completed and the statutes were ready for delivery.
The act of 1881 prescribed with particularity what kind of type and in what style the Revised Statutes should be printed. The contract was let in conformity to the terms of the act. Had the volume, however, been prepared in that manner it would have been most inconvenient and unsightly. Fortunately the contractor was willing to print the volume in a much better type, and to bind it in a much more attractive style, at the price which had been named in the contract and it was accordingly prepared in this manner, with the consent of the Commissioners and to the general satisfaction of the legal profession. It is a volume which the Commissioners have truly said is "a credit to the printers' art."
The cost of the printing, binding and delivery was $22,233 76, being $2 766.24 less than the appropriation for the purpose.
The Commissioners in their contract took the precaution to provide that, as soon as the number of volumes prescribed by law had been printed, the stereotype plates employed in printing it, should without additional charge, be turned over to the State.
No provision having been made by law for securing a copyright, the Commissioners took out a copyright in their own names, which they promptly assigned to the State. In compliance with a request from them, I recommend the passage of an act formally accepting the assignment.
The stereotype plates can occasionally be used to advantage by the State, and could also be used by private parties, in printing separately for circulation, particular acts contained in the volume. I recommend that provision be made by law, for a temporary use of the plates by private parties, for a proper consideration, at the discretion of the Board of Public Printing.
For the laborious work performed by the Commissioners after the end of their term of office, I have no doubt it will be the pleasure of the General Assembly to provide a proper compensation;,
