The Globe. MONDAY, MAY 10, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 284, 10 May 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, MAY 10, 1875.

The public will learn with regret that in the estimates for the current financial year, the Grovernment have put no sum down for the building of a public library in Christchurch. We are perfectly aware that in the face of a failing revenue, it has been found necessary to curtail many votes for objects most desirable in themselves. But in making a selection, we think they might with advantage have included a few thousand pounds for the erection of a public library in the chief town of the province. We observe that a sum of £13,000 has been set down for additions to the Museum, and £IO,BOO for the Canterbury College. .Now, we have no objection to those votes. On the contrary, we are glad to think that in a young country like this, higher education and science are receiving so large a share of attention. The Canterbury College is now an absolute necessity. It forms a part, and a most important one, of our educational scheme. We baye engaged professors, and it there-

fore becomes of the greatest importance that they should have a local habitation and a name. But surely the claims of the Library are greater than those of the Museum. The latter, although still, it is said, cramped for room, has had a fair share of public money spent upon it, and the result is that we have a building second to none in the colony. True, our energetic Director may be forced to make a selection from the numerous exhibits which are said to await a new building in which to be displayed. But in forcing him to do this, some may say that the province has done science a considerable service.

Apart, however, from the fact that the Museum has already a commodious building, there are few, we think, who will maintain that a well-managed and judiciously stocked public library is not a far more useful means of education than a Museum. While tens visit the Museum, and come away with but a hazy notion of all they have seen, hundreds avail themselves of the use of the Public Library, and were it improved and extended, these numbers would be largely increased. It is not necessary at this time of the day to explain how largely literature enters into our every day life, and how important a bearing it has on the happiness of each individual of the community. The specimens which a museum can display are no doubt interesting and instructive, but they ar e but lifeless matter after all, and have but little influence upon the thought and actions of the community, compared with the creations of the novelist, poet, or historian, “ The still sad music of humanity.”

But the Christchurch Public Library should not be regarded as belonging only to the town. Its scope should properly include the distribution of books in the country districts. This plan is adopted in Melbourne and other colonial towns with great success. A large saving would be effected in the cost of books, and the various country libraries would have the advantage of a large and varied selection which under the present system they cannot hope to obtain. We trust and hope that the Council wall see the importance of continuing at any cost the grant to the Public Library of Christchurch,