TWO QUESTIONS OF SITS.

Evening Star, Issue 12067, 12 December 1903, Page 1

TWO QUESTIONS OF SITS.

The Council were not in an acquiescent humor en Wednesday night. Indeed, to be frank, their mood was cantankerous and censorious to a degree -which the Free Library Association and the promoters of the Fallen Soldiers' Memorial might -well regard as very provoking. For our own part, it wae with considerable impatience that wc read the report of the discussion on library question. It might reasonably be surmised that the majority of the Council had paid no heed to what was said at the recent meeting of the Committee of thy. Library Association (to say nothing of our article on the subject.). The old discredited arguments against the; adoption of the Town Hall site were trotted-out with exasperating coolness. First came Councillor Tapper with the hack statement that the available area would only suffice for the construction of " a "proper Town Tali. 7 ' How often must it he repeated that there is ample room fcr both buildings., unless a "proper Town Hall" means a hall out of all proportion to the requirements of this City, in emulation of the Wellington blunder? Then CouneHlor entered a characteristic protest against the notion that the Council were "hanging the matter up/' The notion is certainly prevalent, and we cannot honestly say that it is unwarranted. The Finance Comnnttee had the matter in hand, added Councillor Braithwaite. and they were waiting for a reply from Mr Carnegie'to the question whether a circulating department (with a subscription) could be instituted in connection with the free library. Councillor Braithwaite is evidently one of the councillors who neglected to read the report of the meeting of the Committee of the Library Association; otherwise he would know that, it is mere waste of time to wait for a reply from Mr Carnegie, seeing that conclusive information has come to hand since the letter was despatched, rfiowin,; that a subscription department would he quite incompatible with the settled conditions of all the Carnegie gifts. The intelligence received from America, Hobart. and Gisborne. is conclusive on this score. Wit v. then, should the Council persist, in " hanging the matter up"? Councillor Gore declared that he would be very loth to part with any of the Town Hall area. Is he one of those worthies who cherish the obsolete notion that a free library has no municipal significance? We should be sorry to think so. but the remark about "patting with the land "is suggestive. The " back tstreei" argument was as flimsy as most, of the others: and we can only express a hope (bat the Finance Committee (to whom the matter has been referred) will rise to the occasion, deal promptly and decisively with the necessities of the case, and make an effort to bring the Council as a. whole to a more satisfactory state of mind. The Free Library Association have done all the hard work in connection with the project, and they have good ground for complaint regarding tie cavalier fashion in which the Council :e----eeived and discussed their recommendatioita on Wednesday night. The majority of the Council were just- as obstinately self-opinionated when tire question of a site for the Soldiers* Memorial came up for discussion. In this case the apiaiou. of- the-iepresentatrve Committee of subscribers was endorsed by the Reserves Committee of ths Council, and individual objectors might, have been expected to give way—but- no I—the majority had tasted the blood of the Library Association, so 1a speak, and they were thirsting for another draught. The Mayor spoke stronglv and sensibly. His Worship pointed out that. '• the Committee who had had to do with " this matter had been a most representative " one, and was the largest he had ever pre- " sided over. That Committee had gone "very thoroughly into the question, and *' were, with one exception—and that em"tleman came round afterwards—unani"'mous as to the Triangle being the prutv-r "place. He thought if the Council took "■exception to it it would hang the wh•..•!•■ "thing up. He believed there were ov, r " twenty gentlemen at the Committee me ■: ' : ing. It. was a very serious matter to up"pose the wish of the Committee who had " raised ail the money and done the work ''connected with the movement." Oci-.n-cillor Hally (who was personally opposed to the Triangle site) aptly observed that nor. a sixpence of Corporation money had bean voted to the Memorial—the inference being that it would be very ungracious on the part, of the Council to resist the wishes of those who had done the work and raised the funds. But the majority cared nothing for these considerations, and Councillor J. McDonald's amendment (vetoing the Triangle site) was carried "on the voices." It is tn be regretted that a formal division was not taken, with subsequent publication of the names.