PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6510, 7 January 1882, Page 6

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

TO TUB BDITOB. Bib,—l wish, with your permission, lo call attention to an injustice. I went to the Library last woek for the purpose of becoming a member. I was told that tho fee was 4s per quarter. 1 tendered the money, when I was told that I must likewise get two subscribers to sign a paper recommending me, Now, I am only a short timo a resident here, and might livo here for years and none of tho subscribers know me. Is it reasonable to suppose that they would recommend »'person they never saw in their life before f Or is it fair to ask me to hunt over tho town, asking persons who h&vo no interest in mo to oblige me in any suoh way, and leavo mjself open to bo insulted, looked at from top to toe and snubbed. Two gentlemen within one hundred yards of my place went in tho camo way, end returned without becoming mom. bors. They would not trouble to go asking people who did not know them to oblige them in any suoh way, more especially in a public institution, in which the public have a certain vested right. There should be no absurd or vexatious rules debarring the public from privileges, and considering that there aro throo of us living within so small a compass who are not members for that reason, we have just cause to come to tho conclusion that thore aro some hundreds in and around this city who are non-members for the same reason. The last Library that I was a member of was tho Tfmaru Publlo Library, and on Payment of tho fee I was admittod at once, was likewise a member of a Library Committee for several years in New Zealand, and we had na suoh rule as that referred to, and I never know any loss arising from the want of it. lam certainly astonished at the people of Ohristohurqh allowing suoh a thing. It would be the death of almost any institntion that had to rely on subscriptions alone, and it is no wonder that I was told that it was not worth joining, as they were all books that had been there for years, with very slight additions.—l am, &0., PROGRESS. Christchuroh, Jan. 5.