CARNEGIE'S PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 67, 18 March 1908, Page 8

CARNEGIE'S PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —We see in various parts of New Zealand reports of openings of Carnegie libraries, leading up to the idea of who is going to benefit thereby. On a recent, visit to a small district about forty miles from Auckland, called C'levedon, while looking at the sights of the place in the i evening, I visited the district library and had a chat with the caretaker. That library receives a yearly subsidy from the Government and charges a yearly six shillings to subscribers. I was informed by the librarian that the committee had written to Carnegie, with a view to ornamenting their little township; and had a favourable reply; the only difficulty now in the way was tbe necessity of an assured subsidy of £100 a year for upkeep. I suggested that local bodies, which would naturally be the leading minds of the district, would of course be in sympathy with the movement, but it appears that very few members of the various public bodies and clubs in tha | district are subscribers to the library. : Its chief supporters ore the quiet families who do not indulge in sport and do not . push themselves to the front in public matters; they take their enjoyment , from books. Also the ever shifting farm j j employees who do not always get the time for sport, they also contribute their j share to the upkeep. Carnegie free libraries then would benefit those quiet I families and tbe labouring classes to the I I greatest extent.. I am inclined to think! j that Carnegie, with his large acquaint- ! ance with legislation and local govern- j ment in America, whore it is noted for I corruption, has met with a great deal j ', of ignorance and selfishness and has come '. to the conclusion that the only way to 1 reach that class is through a fine library.—l am. etc.. J COSMOPOLITAN.