E.—l.

XXVIII

Receipts. £ s. d. Expenditure. £ s. d. Cr. Balances on Ist January, 1883 .. 5,096 16 10 Liabilities on Ist January, 1883 4,283 6 8 Voted by the General Assembly 3,894 6 0 Board office management and expenses. 1,837 1 1 Education endowment reserves sold .. 18,605 7 9 Teachers' salaries 29,372 6 1 Bents of endowment re- Boarding-school accounts 3,421 10 2 serves . £13,570 19 0 Examination fees and expenses 576 0 1 Interest on proceeds of Scholarships and prizes 574 4 10 endowments 4,083 9 9 Printing, stationery, and advertising 1,263 8 11 From Education Reserves Buildings, furniture, rent, insurance, Commissioners 2,121 0 4 rates, &o. 20,514 12 2 ; 19,775 9 1 Cleaning, fuel, light, &o. 753 9 8 School fees 18,601 3 0 Interest. .. 2,48111 4 Boarding-school fees 4,572 0 6 Sundries not classified 3,609 10 5 Books, &c, sold, and refunds. 160 7 10 Proceeds of reserves sales invested 6,035 9 3 Sundries not classified . 1,851 7 8 Cr. Balances on 81st December, 1883 4,722 8 6 Interest on current accounts 57 3 8 Dr. Balances on 31st December, 1883 . 6,830 16 10 £79,444 19 2 £79,444 19 2 Expenditure, excluding balances and reReceipts, excluding balances £67,517 5 6 serves moneys investe £64,403 14 9 Public Libraries Subsidy The sum of .£6,000 voted for public libraries has been distributed m accordance with the resolution of the General Assembly Immediately after the prorogation of the General Assembly last year, a public notice was issued, intimating the principles upon which the distribution of the vote would be made, and inviting applications from the managers of public libraries. A separate paper (E.-10) contains a copy of the public notification, and a list, arranged according to the education districts, of all the libraries that participated m the grant, with their several incomes and the amounts paid to them respectively The only income recognized as entitling to subsidy was that derived, from subscriptions and voluntary contributions for ordinary current expenditure , receipts from endowments and Borough or County Councils, rents of buildings, and moneys obtained for building purposes being excluded from the calculations. In accordance with the decision of the General Assembly, the maximum amount of subsidy given to any institution was ,£5O. The following is a summary of the distribution of the vote in the different education districts :—

TABLE X.—Distribution of the Public Libraries Subsidies according to Education Districts.

The whole of the vote of £6,000 was apportioned m the first instance, but, after a majority of the payments had been made, it was ascertained that part of the amount returned as " donations" by a certain library was actually a receipt for rent, and therefore inadmissible for the purposes of the distribution. The deduction made in this case represents the difference between the vote and the amount shown as having been distributed.*

* If the vote had been distributed in strict proportion to the incomes of the several libraries, the eleven followingnamed institutions, instead of receiving only £50 each, would have been entitled to the sums placed after their names respectively : Christchurch Public Library, £150 Us. 4d., Auckland Free Library, £148 ss. 10d.; Oamaru Athenajum, £105 12s. 10d., Timaru Mechanics' Institute, £75 13s. 2d. Wanganui Public Library, £75 Us. Id.; Masterton Institute, £56 16s. 10d.; Nelson Institute, £55 19s. 9d., Cromwell AthenEEum, £52 9s. Id. , Turanganui Public Library, £52 ss. 2d. Christchurch Young Men's Christian Association Library, £52 , and Thames Public Library, £51 6s. sd. The additional amount (£326 Us. 6d.) that these eleven institutions would have received but for the limitation of the maximum subsidy to £50 had the effect of slightly increasing the sums that the smaller libraries would otherwise have received. The Waipawa Public Library would have been entitled to £48 6s. 6d. only, but its share of the £326 lls. 6d. raised its subsidy to £50. The increase of the amount in the case of a library showing an income of £5 was about 125.; of £10, about 145.; of £20, about 18s.; of £30, about £1 25., of £40, about £1 65.; and of £50, about £1 10s. In consequence of the limitation of the maximum grant to £50, the Committee of the Wellington Athenasum have closed their free reading-room, and have not applied for a share of the subsidy.

Education District. Number of Libraries. Income. Amount of Subsidy. Auckland Taranaki Wanganui Wellington Hawke's Bay Marlborough Nelson North Canterbury South Canterbury Westland Otago Southland 38 6 11 16 28 5 25 71 10 16 56 21 s s. a. 2,052 3 9 52 17 6 555 2 11 465 7 0 847 2 5 190 12 2 463 10 7 1,818 8 8 408 5 7 650 9 7 1,548 0 8 498 0 6 £ s. a. 1,354 8 1 69 19 1 250 1 9 288 1 6 526 15 0 108 16 3 365 18 11 1,123 18 8 196 14 1 362 4 1 948 15 9 378 12 0 Totals 356 9,550 1 4 5,980 5 2