MOTUEKA AFFAIRS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 235, 1 November 1876, Page 2

MOTUEKA AFFAIRS.

To thb Editor of the 'Evening Mail.' Sir— '-'A Member of the Institute" is evidently very angry. lam glad of it. It is good that some of the members should be roused up, and then perhaps the very discreditable condition of the library may be remedied. Pray excuse me for not calling ifc the "Institute"; people outside Motueka might think I was writing about the French Institute— quite a different affair. As to the heat, that is a matter of opinion. The " member" may be a Salamander; I am nofc. Bufc as to the books, I distinctly repeat that, whenever I have visited the library, I have found them on the floor, on the shelves, on a round table, in cupboards, and without any attempt afc order or regularity. There are two rooms; in one of these there is a large pile of books on the floor. The excuse about not having the means to print a catalogue is, to use the " member's" expressive language, "all bosh." They might afc least have a written one, and if the Committee had done their duty, there would have been a written one. I have bad some experience in various parts of the world, but I never saw one anywhere in such a discreditable condition as the Motueka library. How is ifc that Riwaka library is such a contrast? Riwaka can manage to gefc a catalogue; Riwaka has its books neatly arranged. Would the "Member of the Institute" kindly explain— l ask it with all humility and with a simple desire for information— what he means when he says " his very lively imagination, which no doubfc galvanized into an artificial state of mental life?" What is " au artificial state of mental life?" Detained in Nelson by the non-departure of the Lady Barkly, I mean to devote the remainder of the evening of this very dull day to trying to gefc my lively imagination to galvanise me into an artificial state of mental life ! — I am, &c, Your Motueka Correspondent. Nelson, Oct. 31, 1876.