CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 130, 10 June 1885, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Free Library and Art GalierjA

(To the Editor), .!/-, ;.;> Sir,—The laying of the foundation stone of our Free Public Library and Art Gallery was, to my mind, the first steps the yotrag giant, " Brighter Britain," has taken in tne march of its future majesty, for without a public library and art gallery the education of our youth would bo incomplete, iney may train and mould the mind in the puDM schools, refine them in colleges, betiutuy them in the universities, but the sttbiOTi the majesty of knowledge, must^ w gathered from the works of ourgw masters from records of tbe greafrmjiKlJ« the living past. Thus will they P«%P mind, and thus shall we have in the future a deeper feeling of freethought-but purer, a deeper reverence for our Maker, but w" less bigotry. For no one, looking upm' t»« works cf these master spirits, and drujHDg in the living streams of truth :«J*W from these maityrs of thought,, p» will find his mind expanded, ana a feelings beautified by mterWMW*"" them, and when he stands before the picture of a Raphael and admires its beauty" will sco, not fa . off, another picture. o) New Zealand Raphael-yes, wo shall. na> our great masters as well as.BMMj" Athens-and as ho listens. to thM«g sweet tones of the organ swelling out ■ glory-bursts of praise, or thrilling love songs as softly as the silvery «Pr . n Xd over our rock-bound coast, ho, Will ** amazed and will exclaim, This anthem must be Mozart's; this tew^'HL be Tennyson's, or Moore's ! Aye, buttW are our children; they were the Mg* tho Tenny.ons, the Moores, we caW W us on Juno 4, ISSS, when Queen AuckUina laid the foundation of her future,gr»tn« in the realms of knowledge m «£« ""£,,, progress, for tlie majesty of human woru> and the cause of ' right *V,^*^ I __ 5 ,