CLASS PRIVILEGES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1912, Page 3

CLASS PRIVILEGES.

PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY. [BI TJLBQSAPH— BFMJAL TO XHB POST.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The Star, in referring to the defeat of Mr- Parr's motion at the Libraries' Coniference, in. regard to the Parliamentary Library, says: — "The result was a lamentable disappointment to those representatives who had gone to the conference inspired by the hope that a national question could be dealt with in a national spirit. In Wellington their interest in the proposal practically ended, and the feeling among them, which will, we believe, vre widely shared throughout the Dominion, was that it is the duty of Parliament to bring its library within the limits of its own requirements* and apply any surplus funds available for library purposes to supply the urgent needs of the country settlers and public- schools. Moreover, if these recess borrowing privileges are to be conferred upon the people of Wellington, it is high time that the whole of the citizens shall have the pleasure of enjoying them, and that members from other parts of the Dominion, shall share in the dispensation of this patronage- We hope that the Radical and Labour members -will see to it next session that members of the labour unions, who can much, less afford to buy costly books than, the classes who at present enjoy these "privileges, shall have free access to the library and full enjoyment of its attractive rooms during their' luncheon hour. This library is maintained from the public revenue, and, if open to the public at all, there should be no discrimination- We sincerely trust that Auckland representatives, at any rate, will adopt measures to end for ever a system of class privilege, which is peculiarly offensive and alien to the principles upon which free public libraries and other democratic institutions ought to be securely based."-