THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1938, 11 May 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1880.

The appeal of tho local committee respecting the Melbourne Exhibition does not appear to have met with anything like tho response it deserves. There is now barely a monlh to the date of closing the reception of exhibits, and yet wo find only some dozen or so requests for space made. It is to be hoped that this apathy will bo overcome by the efforts of the local committee, and that we shall be enabled to make such a display at the Melbourne Exhibition as will give a fair representation of our producing and manufacturing powers. At tho Sydney Exhibition Now Zealand generally, and wo may say Canterbury in particular, made very fair show. But hero it was by an almost continuous pressure upon exhibitors by inlluencos outside tho local committee that this result was attained. It is difficult to understand why this should be so. Manufacturers and producers of almost every article take far more trouble aud incur moro expense than exhibiting entails, in order to obtain publicity for their wares. Hero they will obtain tho best of all possible advertisements, and at a small cost. But with all this, it is exceedingly difficult to got them to see that it is to their interest, quite as much as that of tho particular colony or city in which they reside, that they should send specimens of their handicraft. Tho duties assumed by tho local committee are in themselves sufficiently onerous without having added to them tho still moro irksome one of making personal appeals to every likely exhibitor. We trust, therefore, to see those who have anything to exhibit coming forward far more readily, aud thus placing the local committee in a position to arrange satisfactorily for tho due representation of Canterbury at Melbourne.

The ratepayers of Lyttelton will tomorrow liavo virtually to decide on the continuance or discontinuance in their midst of a most useful institution. Tho question to ho submitted to them is virtually whether they will take over tho Lyttelton Colonists’ Society xihder the provisions of tho Libraries Act. By this Act the ratepayers can agree to a small rate sufficient to cover tho expenses of a library. On the committee handing over the Colonists’ Society’s library, it would then become a free public library. This is what is now proposed with regard to the Colonists’ Society, and in the interests of Lyttelton itself, wo hope the answer will be in tho affirmative. We have said that the continuance of the institution or otherwise depends on tho vote of to-morrow, and this is warranted by the fact that after an existence dating almost from tho foundation of Canterbury, the committee find it impossible to carry on without recourse to the provisions of the Act referred to. In a seaport town like Lyttelton, where so large a number of vessels are continually arriving and departing it is absolutely necessary that some counteracting influence should ho brought to boar against the temptations to drink and other evils. This influence, tho committee of the Colonists’ Society have always endeavoured to exert by throwing their reading-room open free of charge to all seamen visiting the port. But if tho institution, as such, cannot pay its way, this influence , will bo swept away unless something is done. There is no guarantee that, even supposing another society were to rise from tho ashes of the Colonists’ Society, that financial matters would mend. Apart from the convenience and recreation likely to bo afforded to the townspeople themselves by the , existence of a public free library in their midst, the good done to a large class of tho community who otherwise would have no place of recreation hut tho publichouse, should weigh very strongly with tho ratepayers ef Lyttelton in recording their votes to-morrow.,. The cost to them is hut small, indeed infinitesimal, when compared with the benefits which are to ho derived from such an institution as proposed. A moro nominal rate would not only cover all tho working expenses, but enable tho Borough Council, who, under tho Act, become the custodians of tho institution, to add to the stock of books, &c., from time to time. In view of all these things, we certainly venture to express a strong hope that the result of the poll to-morrow will bo to bring in tho Act.