THE CIRCULATING LIBRARY.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2469, 6 March 1882, Page 3

THE CIRCULATING LIBRARY.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sir,—The "Preßs" has a leader this morning with reference to the management of the circulating library by the Board of Governors, and I am bound to Bay a more humiliating confession Is not possible, even by the late Editor of the " Press." or a recreant member of that delectable Board. A certain regulation of the Board is recited, and in the on me breath pronounced idiotic ; and I feel sure the whole public will heartily endorse the opinion, in fact if the whole management of the enormous public estate — the Girls' High Bchool, the Boys' High School, the Museum, the Agricultural Collego by this self-constituted Board of Governors—were laid bare to the public gaze, there would be a howl from one end of the province to the other. Thanks to Dr. Turnbull, the Rev. Mr Fraser, and the Globe, we are to have a little Insight into the management of the Circulating Library, a much-prized and useful institution. Please oontinue your usefulness by informing the public through your columns how many, and the names of the original members of the Board now constitute it, and also the names of those who have been elected to be members of the Board by itself. I think the public will then understand how it is that neither the " Lyttelton Times " or the "Press " fail to enlighten the pnblic, or in the slightest degree objtct to anything the Board may do with the valuable estate in its hands,

I have long since abstained from vi.itinp the Library in consequence of the wretched management, and I may add that, aa a member of the Provincial Conncil, I would never have consented to the management of the Library or valuable endowments being placed in the hands of the Board as at pre* sent constituted. The sooner the people and their representatives awaken to the responsibility weighing upon them the sooner a remedy will be deviled. Yours, &c„ VINDEX. Maroh 4th.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sib, —Permit mo to offer my warmest congratulation* that at last one of our many newspapers has had the manliness to criticise the action of the Board of Governors in its insidious attempt to deßtroy the Circulating Library entrusted to its oare by the late Provincial Council. As yon have said, the Board is most undoubtedly a self-constituted one, as only a small minority of it conrist of those gentlemen named by the Provincial Council, the others having been selected or elected by this minority for obvious reasons The two proprietors of the " Lyttelton limes," the late editor and and a proprietor of the "Press," as well as the editor of the •' Xiraaru Herald" wore appointed by this minority, and, if you are not careful how you conduot yourself, it ia more than likely you will share the same fate, and then, pray, how will the general public be able to obtain any information as to the disposal of the several hundred thousand pounds sterling of the publio money in the hands of this coterie of worthies ? Whenever the estimates of the Board are brought forward, immediately the Board resolves itself into committee, on the suggestion of the wily chairman, and the publio is unable to know what is the cost of any of the expensive " fads" which have become so notorious. I trust, sir, 70U will continue to agitate in the direction of a reform in the management of the valuable estate in the hands of the Board, and that some of our members of the Assembly will lose no time in legislating in the direction of having the Board to oonsist of publio-spirited and energetic men—not elderly ladies, who dare not face any constituency of Canterbury. Yours, &0., THEODOLITE.