CENTRAL LIBRARY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 146, 17 March 1934, Page 8

CENTRAL LIBRARY

Case for New Premises SERIOUS CONGESTION Defects of Present Building Some doubt having been expressed as to the wisdom of doing any further structural alterations to the existing Central Free Public Library in Wakefield Street, inquiry was made by, “The Dominion” yesterday into the extent and purpose of the addition that is being made to the interior of the forty-two-year-old building that houses the city’s literature. The reason for the doubt was that the building is already extremely congested and that it lias suffered, and continues to suffer, from the effect of earthquakes. Add to this the fact that In the beginning the building was illdesigned for library premises, and that it has been added to from time to time, draws attention once more to its woeful inadequacy for the important purpose it fulfils in the community. For example, the last earthquake opened up and extended former cracks in the plaster walls. Right in the entrance foyer one wall crack, painfully visible, extends from the ground floor to the ceiling of the second floor, from which pieces of plaster have dropped out here and there. Vertical cracks are not so much to be feared, it is said, as lateral ones. In this case the crack is vertical, but at intervals there are the beginnings of several horizontal cracks extending out from the mafh one, like tributaries of a river, showing that there is a definite and ever-present, danger in this heavily-populated public building. Room Over Stairway. The structural addition now being carried out consists of an extra room, which is being thrown out from wall to wall over the main stairway in order to provide some little extra accommodation for cataloguing new books. That important work is now being carried out in a little 10ft. by 12ft. space in the ante-room adjoining the. Chief Librarian’s office on the second floor. Such is the cramped condition of the building that the last instalment of new books from England is nt present piled four or five feet high on shelves in the librarian’s room, waiting their chance to be classified and catalogued in the usual way. As the conditions were becoming intolerable the Libraries’ Committee consented to the provision of this extra room on the first floor. When it is considered that 2a,645 books were issued last February as compared with 12,988 in February five years ago, it may be seen that monthly and daily issue of books from, the Central Library has practically doubled itself in that period; yet the staff has to make shift in the same quarters that were considered congested five years ago. Consideration of these disadvantages brings up once more the whole question of library facilities in Wellington, which are probably less satisfactory ■than in any other city of its size in ■New Zealand, hnd brings it home to those who are acquainted with the situation that something -will have to be done in the near future to remedy the matter. Civic Block Scheme. Six years ago, Mr. G. A. Troup, then Mayor, had' in mind the provision of a new library, which would meet all modern requirements now and for fifty years to come, and, at the same time, provide a dignified acquisition to the architecture of the city. Mr. Troup did not consider the library alone, but the whole of the municipal requirements, and he called upon Messrs. W. M. Page and S. W. Frearn to report upon a scheme for a new civic lay-out altogether. These gentlemen submitted a report which occasioned a good deal of admiration. and not a little controversy. In brief, their ideas were, that, if the city was prepared to do the job handsomely, it should acquire the whole of the block on which the Town Hall and library stand at present, and use it for the erection of a substantial block of municipal offices, which would embrace and coordinate all branches of the service,.’ and stop, once and for all, the. spread of municipal departments over several buildings in different parts of the city. The scheme planned to bring into the one block the town clerk’s, city treasurer’s, and city ’ solicitor’s departments, the city engineer’s department from Mercer Street, the tramways and electrical department from Harris Street, and the traffic department from Cuba Street. The Central Free Public Library was to have been located on an acre of lawn and garden on the Wakefield Street side of that triangular block opposite the front of. the Town Hall (the block that extends from the Central Fire Brigade Station to Smith and Smith’s warehouse). That meant the sweeping away of every existing building on that block, and. opening up the Town Hall to a broad vista of Jervois Quay. Slump Intervenes. With his driving force Mr. Troup got the council to tentatively agree to the proposals involved in the report', the understanding being that the first, part of the scheme to be proceeded with should be the municipal block to the westward of the Town Hail.' Sketch plans of this block were even drawn, but toward the end of 1929 harbingers of the depression began to make their presence felt, and as there was a good deal of criticism at the enormous expense involved in the major scheme, the City Council very wisely held its hand. As the slump deepened it became obvious that nothing of the kind could be attempted under the existing conditions. With the retirement from office of Mr. Troup in 1931 the scheme “went to sleep,” so to speak, and it has slumbered ever since.

The question of a new library must be faced sooner or later, and there is no reason why it should not be dealt with apart altogether from other considerations. After all, a public library is concerned very little with other municipal departments, and its needs appear to be more urgent at present than the others. There was at one time, too, a suggestion to extend the present library block by taking in the offices .of the Education Board in Mercer Street, which the council long ago decided to purchase from the Education Department when it can afford to do so; but after all that would be but a temporary expedient, not a solution of the library problem.