MR CARNEGIE'S LIBRARIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9550, 24 July 1909, Page 3

MR CARNEGIE'S LIBRARIES.

I Though Mr Carnegie has given over £10,000,000 for library buildings in all parts of the English speaking world, he has not criticism from detractors. Hitherto the exact extent of his benefactions has not been known; nor have his own particular views of the matter been given any extended statement. But Colliers' Magazine presents an article from his own pen which, though not such in form, seems to be a fact, a reply to his critics. Here are some of the important stateIments:— "The letters received from parents thanking me for libaries established and telling of the change these have made upon the children are numerous. It is not only what a library does in the community;

that is only one half of its sphere. What it prevents is equally important. If young men do not spend their evenings in the libarary where will they be spending them? Jf the young men do not acquire a taste for reading, what will they otherwise acquire? It is often charged against public libraries, that they supply so much fiction. There is something to be said upon side, but the impression received by the figures is greatly misleading. The novel is returned on an average in a few days, but the solid book, conveying instruction, is kept five times longer; so that when we read I of fiction being one-half of the total i books read, if the time consumed be prepared with that spent upon instructive work, then the time spent upon fiction is 10 per cent., one-fif'th of that which the readers would supi pose, after reading that fiction is 50 J per cent, of the whole. But even if fiction be read far more than any other one branch, provided the fiction is good, it is aalutory. I like library giving for one reason particularly. The library gives nothing for nothing. Trie youth who is improved by it must co-operate. If he does not read and study he finds no reward. Nothing for nothing is the law within the walls. Help yourself is the decree. Another [ feature pleases me greatly. The library supported by taxation is owned by the community. It is no gift to the poorer classes*. They also contribute their mite. Free public libraries are the cradles of triumphant democracy." There are now 1,800 Carnegie library buildings, all established under the usual conditions, scattered among the Englishspeaking peoples of the globe.