PUBLIC LIBRARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 7

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

(From the Independent, April 27.) The remarks we made about the necessity of a new library worthy of the colony seem to have attracted considerable attention. “ Common Sense” is however appalled at the notion of building one teti times the size of the present one. Since our former remarks we have made further enquiries, the result of which has only been to confirm us in what we have advanced. The present room is altogether inadequate. The contrivance of the gallery was evidently only a makeshift, and doubtless _ must have been of some temporary assistance. But both the ground floor and the gallery are now altogether inadequate to contain the books. “Of the making of books” we are told on high authority « t here is no endbut we have come to the end of our accommodation for receiving them. The inconvenience of stowing away books on a high and (without a°ladder) inaccessible shelf need scarcely be pointed out; and if the books now in the library were arranged on shelving within easy reach by visitors it is evident much larger accommodation would be required. Nor is this all. We understand that about fifty cases of books are lying unbound in the Custom House, viz., the publications emanating from the Patent Office at home. One case at least is lying unbound in a room adjoining the library, of which the catalogue may be seen in the gallery. These books contain the names of the patentees, and full descriptions of their patents explained bv drawings and specifications, The catalogue of this one case fills three imperial octavo volumes; and the space required for these hooks as may be inferred, must be very considerable. Moreover if we are correctly informed these publications have not come to band for three or four vears past, so that before we are au courant with inventions and improvements of the most, important character, we must have these back volumes sent out.

It may be said that such works are not of general interest or utility. We can only say that, in our opinion, few volumes are more interesting and instructive. From this very catalogue we learn that the volumes in this one case contain specifications of patented inventions in every conceivable art and industry. Farmers may learn from it the very latest appliances in “ ploughing, digging, clod-crushing, land-rolling, harrowing,” &c, the newest and best forms of “ rakes and harrows,” the best way of “ slicing turnip for cattle,” “ of drilling land for sowing seeds,” “ of decorticating grain and seeds,” “ of preparation of cheese,” and they may even make themselves acquainted with the best “ apparatus for singing pigs !” Those interested in railways can find minute specifications of patents “ for working railway points and signals,” fer “ the permanent way of railways,” for u railroad wheels,” for “chains and sleepers,” ,in short, for everything connected with their construction and working. Who would not be benefited by learning the latest improvements in “ reducing fibres to pulp,” “obtaining fibres from plants,” in “ pavings, ways and roads,” in “ repairing ships and boats,” in “ baking bread,” in “ pieserving provisions,” in “ cans for preserved meats,” in “ docks, harbors, and piers,” in “ dredging and cleansing rivers,” and a thousand more appliances for carrying on the work of colonisation ? The more practical character of American legislators may be inferred from their attention to this very subject. While our Government have grudged the very freight for these most useful works, and denied them accommodation on our library shelves, the American Governments give them a separate place in every Government library, and consider they form one of its most important and interesting departments. It will he altogether contrary to the spirit of the legislation brought before the last Parliament by the present Ministry to perpetrate any longer this deplorable blunder of previous administrations. "We urge upon them the propriety of giving this question the serious consideration it deserves. As the country has already resumed the work of colonisation, for so many years interrupted by the native troubles, it is ut fitting that volumes containing a escription of its most useful auxiliary *pphance§ sfloqlcl be brought out from

the cases that have so long contained them for the instruction of the general community. Doubtless many of these patents may be found inapplicable, but all will be found suggestive. Inventions prepare the way for, and suggest, other inventions, and it may be that in the future the colony will do well to rely on native inventive genius and constructive skill, developed by a careful study of what has already been done by the most gifted in the past, and guided by a thorough appreciation of colonial requirements and capabilities. For this purpose nothing is of more direct service than a well appointed library, containing, among other things, specifications of all the latest patented inventions.

A Gazette published yesterday contains the following regulation No. 6. Before letters of registration shall issue to any person for any invention or discovery for which letters patent, or any like protection, shall have issued in Great Britain or any other country or colony, the applicant can furnish duplicate copies of original letters patent or letters of registration and specifications—one copy of the original letters patent or letters or registration and specifications, being certified to as a true and correct copy by a notary public; also a statutory declaration by a person conversant with the laws of Great Britain or of the country or colony in which the same letters patent or letters of registration have been granted, not the claimant, that he has searched the registry of patents in Great Britain or in the country or colony in which the patent has issued. It would therefore appear that it is absolutely necessary that we ought to have these patents put before the public.