THE PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 817, 14 May 1910, Page 7

THE PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY.

Sir,—lt was a curious feature of last j year's retrenchment scheme that it left , untouched tho most extravagantly man- ; aged' institution in New- Zealand. This - is the Parliamentary Library, That library spends less on books and publi- , cations than do the three Wellington , city libraries, but it costs one-third more . in salaries every year. Here are tho figures for Inst year:— ! . Books ' : etc. Salaries. £ £ Parliamentary Library 750 2,203 Municipal libraries (3) 834 1,442 The Parliamentary Library exists for 1 the benefit of about 120 members of Parliament. The public is rigidly excluded for half the year. The amount spent for books and periodicals is equal' to between £7 and £8 per annum per member, and 1 there is a staff of eight attendants, paid as follows: — / * £ Chief librarian 525 First assistant 360 Second assistant 200 Third assistant 260 Fourth assistant 105 Attendant i ISO Messenger 175 Binder .198 Mailman (in session) 70 ' ' ~ .£2,203 " Speaking' in Parliament on September 7, 1906, Sir Joseph Ward said: "There was an implied understanding that the salary of the chief librarian should rise gradually to a maximum of £500." How comes it, then, that in the mid6t of retrenchment ono finds this public, servant drawing per annum? There are six well-paid attendants .to do the ' routine work of the library. I' have never seen the chief librarian passing out "books, sorting them, cataloguing them, or putting newspapers, on ]tho files. He sits all. "day in a snug little study. What abstruse business goes on there; 'I wonder. I have thought it out, and I have conic to the conclusion that the only possible thing remaining to the chief librarian is 'the ordering of the new books. There is about fourteen pounds' worth new books to be ordered every week. The arrangement thus means that it .costs .£lO 10s. a week to select goods worth. £14. .Where' else ■ but in New a Zealand's! Parlm r inentary Library are- eucli things, possible? I am told that about £100 a year is spent in buying novels for members and their wives-to. read, and that the best part of another £50 goes in the purchase ofthe memoirs of Court beauties and such books. This leaves £500 out of £750 for solid literature. • , It is time the present Parliamentary Library was abolished and transformed into a national library, open to the public all the year round. Parliaments elsewhere in the British Dominions are satisfied' with conipact legal and political reference libraries, and their members do not expect the State to provide them and their sisters , and their cousins and their aunts .with light literature at the public. expense—l am, etc!, ■ ■ • . READER. . Wellington, May 10. [Our correspondent's conception of the duties of the ctief librarian is a very crude one. His idea of a national library, however, is one that will commend itself to most people.]