THE BOOKLESS HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BOOKLESS HOME.

PRIVATE LIBRARIES. Tho annual output of tho printing press and the circulation of books from county and borough libraries are indications of the increase in the volume of reading, but it is npt at all certain that the formation of home libraries is as satisfactory as it might be (writes a contributor to the "Manchester Guardian"). An inquiry instituted some little time ago by the headmaster of a large elementary school in one of the poorer quarters of an industrial area revealed tho book poverty of such homes. From a large class only a few could produce a book of any kind, and those were principally Sunday school prizes. In a more prosperous district in the samo town a tradesman recently noted that the residents, .whilst being able to afford expensive furniture, Persian rugs and motor cars, possessed few books of any real value. Tli-eso examples dispose of the plea that financial poverty is alone the cause of this dearth of books. Inadequate education and a wrong sense of values are more likely to be responsible.

Some people may be inclined to argue that the plentiful provision of borrowing facilities from public and other libraries makes the private collection unnecessary, and there are those who believe that a book oilce read is finished with. Such views may be combined. The function of libraries, of whatever variety, is merely to supplement, and not to oust, tho private and personal choice of books as represented by the homy collection.

When one realises what is spent in luxuries and amusements by almost all classes—theatres, cinemas, drinking and smoking, to name but a few—it is evident that in these days of cheap book production there is no excuse for the absence of the home library. Is it noi also a fact that in ninny middle-class homes where any pretence whatever is made of Iniok collection the choice is not only elementary but exceedingly limited? This state of affairs is surely deplorable >'i an age of high, scholastic endeavour, and it indicates an educational and social leakage of tremendous import. For the vast majority the continuance of education must be sought in the printed page, and the meagre vocabulary of many people is due to lack of wide and varied reading. Instead of regarding tho private library as a luxury we must regard it as a necessity, as a good investment, even if only considered on a pounds, shillings and pence basis. But it has, indeed, a much wider significance, and especially so whero there are voting people. It is no exaggeration to say that any home with even a small but wise selection of books will supplement and broaden the scholastic education of tho young to an extent altogether out of proportion to tlie cost. Tho Victorians—the middle classes at any rate—understood this, and surrounded, as far as means allowed, their growing families with books.