The Fielding Star. SATURDAY, SEPT. 23, 1882. FEILDING PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 29, 23 September 1882, Page 2

The Fielding Star. SATURDAY, SEPT. 23, 1882. FEILDING PUBLIC LIBRARY.

We make no apology for again referring to the questiuu of the establishment of a Free Public Library and Reading Koom in Feilding. In another column we publish a letter | from au esteemed correspondent, and we recommend its pciusal to those i who take an interest in this important question. We say important, for ! such we feel it to be. and one with , which every person who is anxious for the moral auu intellectual welfare of ( the community cannot but feel the I strongest sympathy. In visiting j Wanganui, Palmerston, and other townships un the coast, the traveller can always spend a pleasant hoi.r or two, as the reading room is ever at hand, where most of the Colonial aud Home papers, magazines, &c, may at any time be perused. But it is to the inhabitants themselves of a town blessed "ith such an institution as a Free Public Library who are especially benefitted thereby. They have the still further advantage of taking home the volumes of which that Library is composed, where they may *' read, .mark, learn, aud inwardly digest" their contents at their leisure. Both the intellect and the heart are made better by this intercourse with other and greater minds, the result of whose labors are to be lound in the books and magazines iv every well constituted public library. Wordsworth has truly said — Books are each' a woild ; aud books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure aod good. Without, however, attempting to moralize further on the subject, we unhesitatingly say th;it it is high time the ratepayers of Feilding shook oft their apathy, and took some decisive action towards the establishment of , such a G-esi* able institution as we have named. We see not the sligh-est difficulty in the way; on the contrary, i there is everything to encourage the movement. A' large number of volumes, which constituted the old Library held in the barracks, were, a ; is well known, handed over by the ! trustees to the Borough Council for , the u,>e of the burgesses, and these are now available as a nucleus for the establishment oF a new Public Library. Moreover, some lew weeks ago the Borough Council unanimously adopted, on the motion of Councillor Johxsto.v, the following- resolution : — "That the Mayor take the necessary steps to obtain the consent of the ratepayers to the striking of a rate of not more than Id in the £, i for a Library." This appeal we are confident the burgesses will readily I respond to. But the most important ! item of encouragement is the share to which Feilding would be entitled in the large amount recently voted by Parliament for subsidising Public Librares. This in itself is far too good to be lost simply for the want ot a little energy in the matter. Our correspondent offers to contribute £5 towards the erection of a suitable building for the Library, a d doubtless many others would gladly give their mite in aid bf such an obj-ct. In conclusion, ive wou'd suggest that our worthy Mayor should; at as early a date as possible, call a public meeting of the ratepayers and others interested in the matter, in order to take immediate steps for making the Feilding Public Library «nd Reading Room an established fact.