ESTABLISHED 1875. Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Conducted by E. D. HOBEN. Published Every Morning. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1909. THE LOAN PROPOSALS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 760, 6 July 1909, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1875. Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Conducted by E. D. HOBEN. Published Every Morning. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1909. THE LOAN PROPOSALS.

The meeting jaßt night .in connection with the loan proposals took the only course it was possible for it to take, : viz.: to approve them. There is no donbt whatever that it iB absolutely essential to the, welfare of the place that the .water supply should be plaoed on a basis of abundance; not merely for the domestic requirements of man and beast, but also for such purposes as watering gardens. We tiaVe in the Tiritea supply a practically unlimited supply foj a town of the dimensions whioh.Palmerston is ever likely to aohieve; and it is a manifest reglect.of golden opportunities that we have net in the past made full use of the splendid supply of water at our hands. To our idea gardens are as muoh a part of the town dwellor's life as any other of the town's amenities, and we certainly do not wish a repetition of the position whioh has happened so often previously-that jufit when gardens most need refreshment the use of the water supply for suoh purposes should be prohibited. The setting of the pipe-line in order will do much, but muoh more is required; and that more iB certainly represented by the inorealsug of the storage oapaoity of the roservoir by rais-. ing the height of the dam. In addition an [effective system, of filtration is aho surely needed. It is not pleasant to have something like brown soup coming through the water-pipes whenever thero happens to be an exceptionally heavy rainfall on' the Tiritea hills. With regard to the library loan, it iB highly necessary that we should have a proper library and a proper mnsenm. We have already written so muoh on these points that it is quite unneoeßßary to further elaboratp them. Palmerston has the unenviable distinction 'of possessing the worst library of any town of its size in Australasia. W6 Bay this with every respect for what the Library Oommittee has done with the means at its disposal. The library is altogether inadequate in the reference department, and in the olroulating branch it falls very far short of libraries in very much smaller towns. The folly of refusing the Carnegie gift is, now clearly perceived by the community. They ' have only to look at towns like New Plymouth to see what they might have enjoyed had better counsels prevailed. At least we would have had a library useful for reference and of some utility to the general publio. During tho past fortnight we hare had oocasion to .refer an inquirer to the library for five works on Eastern matters. All these books might be regarded as standard works, and tilioy were cortalnly neoessary to an intelligent understanding of the qnestion; but not one of these works had even been heard of at our library. Again, a very simple matter of reference whioh [should have been available in a few minutes was made the eubjeot of inquiry through our columns, and as onr own reference library happened to be deficient on the point we sought the assistance of the public library, only to find it unreliable, in spite of every desire to help us on the part of tho library staff, who always oxtend courtesy to all enquirers. An ounce of practice in all suoh matters is worth a pound of theory, and although we have heard a great deal about the shortcomings of the library, these two simple oases supply abundant evidence of the condition of affairs.