THE DUNEDIN ATHENEUM AND MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 181, 14 June 1862, Page 5

THE DUNEDIN ATHENEUM AND MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

To the Editor of the Otaoo Daily Times. Sib,—-I am pleased to find the Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institution opened at last, but I am equally sorry to find that the Committee have adopted a scale of fees which places it quite beyond the reach of those for whose benefit it was most specially intended. Two guineas per annum is more than the majority of working men can afford to pay, aud sufficient to exclude many who might otherwise become members.

Surely the Committee, in adopting, such exclusive rates, have forgotten that it is a Mechanics' institution, as well as Athenceum, -the one designation, as I take it, referring more particulai-ly to the dissemination of general useful knowledge : the other, and more pretentious title, relating more directly to art and literature, and adopted partly as indicating its relation thereto, bona fide, and partly, perhaps, as sounding better to the ears of those whose hobby it is to be considered savans and illuminati. A blending of the two, was I believe, proposed by the originators and promoters of the Institution. They have surely forgotten that it |was with a special reference to its original intention and designation —a Mechanics' Institution, — that the site on which it ibrmerjy stood, now occupied by Messrs. Richmond and Gillies, was reserved in their favor! and that subsequently the Government grant of £1,000 was given. And that, if any thing, it is more a. Mechanics' Institution than an Athenasum, and for the community generally, rather than for a select few. . . . _ . ■

tf-exclusiveness is intended, which I hope is not the case, in the connection and circumstances it is peculiarly odious. Surely there should be no demarcation lines, or separation in the great common of knowledge. Surely, if anywhere,'they may be broken down there : and those permitted to lningij together, whose moi'al aud intellectual aims aud fympathies are in substance one.' Surely in such pursuits there should be no stickling for petty distinctions of rank or standing ill society. The unnecessary insisting upon suuli class separations aud distinctions at all, you are well aware, is not in accordance with the genius and spiiitofour n:;e; and they are waived whenever and wherever it can be advantageously done, in muck more elite society than Dunedin will ever be able to boast, and with a beneficial effect in regard to even manners and general deportment that is most fyingI fi-el confident, sir, that the subscribers would be trebled or more, were the subscription £1 Is , instead of £2 25., and surely such a, consideration to a body of men, whose object we will be charitable enough to suppose is not so much the providing an agreeable lounge for themselves, as the advancement oi' intelligence by the attractions of a superior resort, for instruction and recreation to the towns' people, and especially the young men of Dunedin, should be sufficient, or rather, decisive. To repeat—on the ground of the original intention of the Institution ! of the intention of the Groverament when the endowments were granted'! and on the ground of extended usefulness —I for one, tbink that the fees should only be one half, at the utmost, what they are at present, and if the Committee have any suflirient reasons to assign for the contrary, they should certainly make them known. The Institution is a public one, and the public have a right to know on what principles it is constituted, and is being conducted.

It would certainly -considering that the population has so much fresh blood poured into it of late, that its exigences ere extended and altering greatly—have only been an act of courtesy and justness, to have convened n public meeting previous to its opening, that this and various other points might have, been ventilated and dismissed. Many thanks to those gentlemen who have exerted themselves in its promotion, and brought their bantling thus far ; but they must not ignore their responsibility. They have public money to account for, a public institution under their care, and the public have quite a right to take even high ground in the matter. Vox Popuij.