CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 74, 30 July 1873, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Our columns are open for free discussion; but we do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Correspondents.]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —How is it people in Gisborne, young men in particular, are constantly complaining of there being little or nothing in the way of amusement to be had in town. Surely they cannot know that there exists a Library with a reading-room oonnected thereto, and a very creditable one too, in the Town Hall; plenty of booka suited to most tastes, and a fair assortment of papers and periodicals, from which one can, round a cheerful fire, derive much useful information as well as amusem<nt; and the subscription entitling one to the use of the reading-room and library is only one pound per annum. How many are there in town, especially those living at hotels and boarding-houses with no fixed home of their own, who find it hard to kill tune in the evenings—would they not find it much pleasanter, ana certainly more beneficial to themselves, to spend their evenings in the Library than spending their money elsewhere in a less remunerative way perhaps. I hope this may lead some who are not aware of its existence to join the Library, which certainly does great credit to Gisborne, for in few places, double the size of Gisborne, will a Library and Reading-room of the same high-standing be found, and the subscription so very moderate. Apologizing for troubling you—l am, sir, yours, Ac., J.

Sir, —Will you be kind enough to let me trespass in a small way on your valuable space. Like most people in the world I have a chronic grievance, and my particular one at present is that the inhabitants of Gisborne and the neighbourhood seem utterly to neglect the very great privilege which they have of subscribing to a welloonducted library, and of spending a pleasure evening in a comfortable and well lighted reading room, which is open many evenings in th» week. It must be utterly disheartening to th® prime

movers in the formation of our library, to go there any evenings and find the librarian sitting in solitary grandeur (as is sometimes the case) thoroughly enjoying himself among the ample supply of books and periodicals instead of being able to distribute them to subscribers. Surely it cannot be known in the district what a large and well-selected number of works there are in the library, or that the annual subscription only amounts to the very small sum of £1- In fact so confident am I that this is the case that I beg leave to invite your numerous readers to visit the library, and then not only to subscribe themselves but to try and induce their friends to follow their good example.—l am, Ac.,

Nemo. [The subscriptions are 5s a quarter, and 15s a year for country members.—Ed. P.B.S.]