New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4901, 6 December 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6.

We see it is announced, on what authority we are not aware, that the Otago Provincial Library is to be handed over to the University. We may say that all our remarks of yesterday, in reference to the disposition of the Canterbury Library, apply with equal force to that of Otago. Here is another valuable public property about to be handed over to another inordinately rich corporation. The endowments of the Otago University are hardly, if at all, leas extensive and valuable than those of the Canterbury College ; and yet here it comes now and, grasps this property which should, we urge, be handed over to some body that would become trustees of it for the public use. We believe that the Otago Library is much less extensive and valuable than that of Canterbury or Wellington; but still the principle is just the same, and it is,. we believe, a. very bad principle. There is in Dunedin an excellent and well-conducted Athenseum, and to this we contend that this library, the property of the public, should, have been handed over, to be held for the public use and benefit. Where was that champion of the people, Mr. Robert Stout, when this act of spoliation was doing? He is, we believe, a member of the Athenaeum Committee, and surely it was his duty to come forward and defend the public rights in this matter of the Provincial Library. If the Government are now or shall become parties to these two mean transactions, they are, we think, committing a grave error of judgment, of which the consequences may be unpleasant hereafter.