OUR LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 75, 29 March 1934, Page 8

OUR LIBRARIES

HAMPERED BY STATUTE

NATIONAL SYSTEM NEEDED

(By Telegraph) . i (Special to the "Evening Post.") . DUNEDIN, March 28. ■ "A great need in New Zealand at the present time is for the formation of a national library, as we are ono of; the few British Dominions that has, not got one. The Dominion has' no national library systeiii, and with the exception of those in the four, centres, New Zealand' libraries" are the jriost backward in the .world," said a Wellington librarian, referring to the forthcoming visit of investigation by a'Carnegie Corporation representative, .Mr. Ealph Mutiti, director of tho Pittsburgh Library and Art Gallery. '■'; ■ v : The view was expressed that the best library system in the world was in existence in Great Britain. A remarkable feature about New Zealand was that libraries were not free except in Dunedin, which "in that respect' was superior to any other centre in the Dominion. They could not have-free libraries, however, without finance, and they.'we're hampered by the statutory rate limitation of Id in the S'that had been abolished in Great Britain, where it had been raised to 3d, which was considered the minimum. In America they spent a dollar a head on libraries. "New' Zealand has more libraries on a population basis than practically any other English-speaking country," said the librarian, who stated that tho number was 435. The trouble, however was that they were all independent of one another, the unit each served being too small for'good service. Five thousand was the absolute' minimum for efficient service. .