402 Transactions . — Miscellaneous . 



phonetic systems, is indicated by a single character. In the 

 lower case the italic letters are arranged in a border to the 

 left and along the top, leaving the handier and larger boxes 

 for the roman. All the cells for italic are uniform in size 

 except for "p" and " w," which are half as large as the 

 rest. A compositor will recognise that the roman letters, 

 spaces, &c., follow the familiar arrangement of the English 

 case as far as the variation in the alphabet will allow. One 

 or two divisions unmarked in the drawing may have been 

 occupied by minor sorts — there must, for instance, have been 

 a place allotted for the H sign, used freely in the Maori New 

 Testament. Such omissions, however, do not affect the 

 general scheme. 



The box above the " H " was marked "Bad letters," and still 

 contained a few damaged types. A French case always has 

 such a box, which is known as the diahle. In English it is 

 the " hell-box," but is always a separate receptacle. The box 

 over the italic " A " was marked '• h, old," and contained two 

 italic " b's " with the bottom curve cut off— a makeshift when 

 the supply of "h" ran out. These cut "b's" used as a 

 substitute for " h " may be seen in some of the early mission 

 printing. 



It is not likely that it would be found worth while to bring 

 Mr. Colenso's pattern of Maori cases into use, so the originals, 

 which I intend to place, with other relics, in the Colonial 

 Museum, are likely to remain unique. In modern Maori 

 printing little use is made of italic ; in the work on which 

 Mr. Colenso was engaged, though the quantity of italic used 

 was not great, words in that character occurred (as in the 

 English Bible) in every few lines. Printers, however, who do 

 much work in the native language would find it advantageous 

 to have a special lower case. The standard upper case, seven 

 boxes by seven each side, would be more convenient than one 

 of six-by-six, as the whole alphabet would come in two rows. 

 To compose any foreign language, and Maori especially, from 

 an English case is inconvenient. The English proportion 

 of "a" is far too small; so with " k," the most frequently 

 occurring consonant, which in English is allotted to one of 

 the smallest boxes. Then, the compositor is cumbered by 

 large quantities of useless sorts, such as "d" and " s," the 

 boxes devoted to which are full and possibly overflowing when 

 the rest of the case is worked out. 



Mr. Colenso had sometimes to do English work, and, having 

 no English cases, was put to no little inconvenience. " I may 

 observe," he says, " that such an arrangement proved to be 

 a very good one while my compositing was confined to the 

 Maori language only; but when I had any English copy to 

 compose it was altogether the reverse — then I had to pick out 



