The Wairarapa Daily WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1880.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 581, 29 September 1880, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1880.

This year •will be a bad one for Country Libraries, especially for those •which, like the Masterton Public Library, are saddled with a big debt. Last year the subsidy made matters a little pleasant and easy for our local library committee, but this one its lines will not fall in pleasant places, and it will have to meet interest and sinking fund without the aid of agovernmentsubsidy. At the fag end of the late session the Premier was pressed for a library vete by Mr Gißborne, In answer to the demand, Mr Hall declared that he sympathised very much with the honorable member forTotara in his desire;to assist the public libraries; but it was a matter of very much regret to the Government the necessities of the colony compelled them to select this as one of. those votes which must' be suspended for the present, The Government would consider the matter, but he could not hold out hope that anythiug would be done, in the existing state of .affairs, These libraries, especially the small ones, might be assisted by getting well-to-flo

individuals to make donations of books which they themselves had read and had no further use for. In that way very large accessions might bo made to the shelves of these institutions without the donors feeing any loss. Tho suggestion made by the Premier is a very sensible one, and might be adopted at Masterlon with advantage.—possibly at Carterton and Groytown, but the latter libraries are comparatively free from debt, and ought, to. have money available for buying new books. It-is obvious, however, that theMasterton Library wjll have but little money to spend on. new books, and it is also patent tnafc without an influx of new reading matter it will not thrive. There are many residents "in the neighborhood who could, without any great sacrifice, contribute ten or a dozen r olumes of works which they possess, which they have read, and probably will not require to read again. ; Some two or three hundred volumes might be thus got by the committee without expense, and eveii the contributors would find a profit in such.a'scheme. Contributor A, for example, though he dispossessed himself of a few books,"would, get the opportunity of reading the greater number given by other contributors. We hope .the Masteston Library Committee will consider the suggestion, and if it finds that it has little money for buying new works, make a raid upon its subscribers for light literature.; Eventually the Masterton Library will be a valuable institution. It has been designed and planned on a larger and more pretentious scale than any similar institution in the Provincial district outside of Wellington. Its magnitude, however, is, for a year or two to come, the source of its weakness. Its success, nevertheless, in the long run is undoubted, and it is officered by an able Committee. lor a year or so it will miss the Government subsidy, but before very long long it will be strong enough to bo independent of adventitious aid of this description, and able to run alone.