LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 183, 15 July 1864, Page 2

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

We are requested to direct attention to the advertisement calling a general meeting of the members of the Athenceum and Mechanics’ Institute this evening. We hope that the meeting will bo well attended, and that the members will do all that lies in their power to further the progress of this useful Institution. The Committee cannot be expected to be successful in their undertaking, unless their efforts are seconded by the public of Napier, and indeed of the Province generally; but considering the resources at ii their command, it must be allowed that a good deal has been accomplished, and we trust those members who have expressed dissatisfaction with the results will not only attend the meeting, but will themselves put their shoulders to the wheel and help to carry out the good work. The general result of what has been done in the last twelve months may be thus summed up. An active canvass by the members of the Committee obtained about 125 members for the past year. The rooms leased for the purpose were suitably furnished and well lighted, and a librarian was in attendance from six o’clock till’ten every evening, with a few unavoidable exceptions. The reading room has been supplied with the principal New Zealand newspapers, as well as some of the Australian and several English journals (the latter including Punch, Illustrated News, Home News, Evening Mail, &c.,) also with periodicals such as the Southern Magazine, Blackwood, Cornhill Magazine, Leisure Hour, &c., &c., in addition to which the library has been furnished, principally by donations, with about 150 Volumes, and a choice selection to the value of about £3O is now on board the ship “’West Australian ” which has already arrived at Wellington, and may therefore be expectedhere in the course of a week or so.— Communicated.