AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17863, 8 September 1923, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE

AT BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION.

The British Empire Exhibition will last six months, April to October next year. In each Australian State a Commission is collecting exhibits, with a. Federal Commission, sitting in Melbourne, in control. The New South Wales Commission has adopted the idea of showing books as well as wool and wheat. A list of about 300 books, representing the literature of Australia, has been prepared by the N.S.W. Parliamentary Librarian and Sydney City Librarian, and is being submitted for approval bj the Federal Commission. The idea is to collect the books and show them as a reference library _in the space of a small shop— so that risitors may have a compact view of Australian literature. '

A further idea is to let publishers) supply stock for sale, representing th» books chosen from their particular lists. This may expand into the sate of all Australian books, a"hd possibly of selected periodicals. Sydney publishers have offered to supply the New South Wales/Commission with refer-

ence books free and f sole-stock third off retail price; returning at their own cost any unsold stock. The New South Wales" Commiesion'ii tentative list of 300 books is, generally speaking, full and tolerably representative. The librarians have made » collection rather than a selection...,. . It is desirable that the Slew.Zealand Commission should take similar steps on behalf of New Zealand aataor*.