MASTERTON LIBRARY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1940, Page 6

MASTERTON LIBRARY

COMPREHENSIVE STATISTICAL REVIEW Position During Past Decade PARTICULARS OF COST PER READER COMPARISON WITH THE FREE SYSTEM A statistical review of the position of the Masterton Municipal Library has been prepared by Councillor G. W. Morice, in view of the interest in library affairs arising from a proposal recently considered and eventually turned down by the Masterton Borough Council, for the adoption of the free library system as instituted by the Country Library Service. Councillor Morice sets out the position of the library in the table appearing below: —

Commenting on the above figures, Councillor Morice states that the tendency is for the expenditure to rise. The cost per reader at the Masterton Municipal Library is . now over £2 and it is of interest to compare the position of the Palmerston North library, where the cost per reader, before the library was made free, £1 18s, had dropped to 11s 8d after the change to a free library. In Dunedin, which also has a free library, the cost per reader is 5s 6d. The recent rise in cost in Masterton, states Councillor Morice, is due partly to the employment of an assistant, which has enabled the library to be open for much longer hours to meet the convenience of readers. At present it is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. This has naturally led to a greatly increased number of readers, though the latter number only ,6.1 per cent of the population, or , including juveniles, 7.4 per cent. Palmerston North library, which has been free for two years, caters for 37 per cent of the population, ;and Timaru, free for 30 years, for 50 per cent of the population. The number of subscribers at the Masterton Municipal Library began falling in 1935, before the change in the Library Committee came into being, Councillor Morice points out. The work done by the committee of councillors and co-opted members, with the expert from Wellington, he states, gave the present committee a good foundation on which to build. This has been done. More money is being spent on the library, which is now in good condition for the purposes it serves, that is, supplying fiction and a small percentage of non-fiction to the natural reading section of the population. But this, Councillor Morice states, is not the whole function of a public library which is mainly supported by the rates and by endowments.

192930 1930- 1931- 1932- 19331934- 19351936- 1937 1938- 1939Aug’. 1940 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 No 1 , of subscribers 530 Amount of Subscriptions 490 450 440 460 500 480 450 172 390 465 179 533 180 578 (£) 200 Rate in 190 156 165 198 187 204 180 .2d £1 ,16d ,16d ,16d ,16d .16d ,16d ,16d ,16d ,16d .25d Total rate (£) 475 484 456 488 489 479 476 493 501 761 614 Expenditure other than interest (£) 572 Interest 565 559 576 587 598 596 638 749 924 876 charges (£) *250 Total 250 250 250 200 7 200 200 200 200 200 expenditure (£) 822 Approx. Population 8450 815 809 826 787 605 796 838 949 1124 1076 8450 8550 8600 8700 8800 8900 9096 9350 9400 9450 Percentage readers to population 6.3 5.8 5.3 3.1 5.3 5.7 5.4 4.9 4.2 4.9 5.6 6.1 The expense per reader works out as follows: — £ s d 1929-30 .... 1 11 0 1930-31 .... 1 13 3 1931-32 .... 1 15 6 1932-33 .... 1 17 9 1933-34 .... 1 14 0 1934-35 .... 1 4 2 1935-36 .... 1 13 2 1936-37 .... 1 17 2 1937-38 .... 2 8 8 1938-39 .... 2 8 4 1939-40 .... 2 0 4