THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 253, 31 October 1870, Page 2

THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

To the Editor of the Evening Stab.

Sib, —I was astonished to see in your contemporary the Southern Cross this morning that it is proposed by tli9 committee of the Mechanics' Institute, at a meeting to be held to-night, to increase the salary of the Secretary. I would ask what right the committee have to squander the money of the members and subscribers when it is said that the debt on the building is the cause that prevents a regular supply of colonial newspapers and magaziues that • are found on the table of the readirig-room of every third-rate little township in the colonies. Is it so that the Secretary, by his civility and obliging,' conduct, has so increased the number of subscribers that the committee wish to reward him ? Sir, I can assure you that the general feeling of those who have had to do with, that gentleman is that his rudeness to members and subscribers has turned many away from the institute, and discouraged others from joining. It is said that the inconvenience caused to this pet of the committee is also the reason why the entertainments and other things intended for the benefit of the institute have been suspended. I say, sir, that the committee will bo most unwarrantably abusing their trust if they trifle in this way with the money of the members without consulting them. —I am, &c,

A Fbiend to the Institute,

To the Editor of the Evening Stab.

Sib, —I was a supporter of the Mechanics' Institute, and left because of the habitually insulting manner of the Secretary to me. .1 see, by the morning papers, that the com-; mittee are about to increase his salary. In these hard times can no one be found at even a smaller S9lary than that given to the Secretary, who will fulfil the duties of the office without driving people away from the readingrooms ? I have been told that a regular canvass has been made of the members of the committee, so as to make the increase to the Salary a.certainty.—l am, &0., A Fobmer Subscribes. :