BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1950 THE LIBRARY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 18, 10 November 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1950 THE LIBRARY

After the first three weeks since the re-opening, reported the librarian, Miss A. M. Brodrick, to the Whakatane Library Committee, there were 287 subscribers.

The figure given represents not a tenth of the population of the town, not a third of the number of householders in the Borough, to say nothing of the County which the library is also intended to serve.

The presence of private lending libraries in the town is partly, but only partly, responsible for this lack of interest in a free institution.

Though the library has only been re-opened for a month, its re-opening was well publicised and the response by now should have been better.

The new library is a vast improvement on the old but it is still far from sufficient to be attractive to people in a considerable and growing town. The Library Committee and the Council hesitate to spend what must be spent to make this library real. The Library Committee is virtually the Borough Council’s Finance Committee. Without belittling that committee’s efforts, would it not be advisable for the new Council to appoint a committee of representatives of the general public, with the Council only represented on it. The adoption of this idea in many small towns has brought progressive libraries into existence.