READ AND RELAX

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 132, 15 December 1928, Page 10

READ AND RELAX

THE VALUE OF BOOKS "I should like to say a little about our library and a word about reading," writes M.iss Bathain, principal of Wellington Uast Girls' College, in her annual report. "People who realise the valuo of readilng have again been very generous to the school library, and many new books have been added this year. This has necessitated the providing of additional shelves. Nothing gives greater satisfaction both to those who use the library, and to those in charge of it, than to sco new books arriving, but every new set of shelves emphasises the scanty accommodation of tho reading-room. This room, a little basement room, converted in 1925 into a library and reading-room for 240 girls, is still tho only library and read-ing-room for 380. In four years the number of books has trebled, and the accommodation for readers has obviously decreased. What is to happen, then, as time goes on? Is the important work of the library to be handicapped because no one will make room for it? A girl who in tho short leasure of a school day can find opportunity to forget herself and her restricted world in a book, even for a short time, is acquiring a power of relaxing which in later years will help her to preserve a sense of proportion in the midst of difficulties. To 'find room for every girl to enjoy the library as she should is becoming an immediate serious problem. A word about 'homo reading.' I should like tho co-operation of <ill parents in this matter, and I aslc one question now, 'Bo you, as parents, know what your girls are reading'!' Some do, I urn sure, but others do not. In those days of pleasure seeking, excitement, and especially of noise, allow them to read and rest, but, again, I ask you to know what they are readin&« ■. ....:'..__. __l;.'..'._LL i