FREE LIBRARIES IN SCOTLAND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2445, 19 January 1881, Page 3

FREE LIBRARIES IN SCOTLAND.

- -• Scotchmen are very proud of the free libraries which have sprung up in tlieir midst since 1859, and are determined that the want of such institutions in three of their chief towns —Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow—shall ere long be remedied. The largest of those free libraries is at Dundee, where it is housed in that well-known building, the Albert Institute, erected from the plans of Sir Gilbert Scott at a cost of £40,000. Paisley is indebted fur its free library and museum to the liberality of Sir Peter Coats. The ratepayers of Dundee read every year about 800,000 volumes; their compatriots at Paisley require just a sixth of that number, aud read a larger proportion of fiction than the inhabitants of any other town which boasts its own library for the people. The smallest public library in Scotland may be found at Thurso, where a penny rate only produces £4O a year for its support, and for the purchase of new books. The inhabitants of this the most northernly town on the mainland of Scotland, are not “ behind the north wind ”in civilization. The number of volumes issued annually allows two for each inhabitant, the largest proportion of any in the kingdom. It is an undoubted fact that a much smaller number of novels are taken out from these libraries in Scotland than on this side of the Tweed. This may arise from the circumstance that almost every son or daughter of Scotia contrives at a very early period in life to devour the “ household words ” of Scott. When they advance in life their amusement is found in reading, like the old fisherman of Thurso, a commentary on the New Testament in eleven huge volumes. —“ Pall Mall Gazette.”