Visitor’s Criticism

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 11, 14 January 1936, Page 11

Visitor’s Criticism

NEW ZEALAND LIBRARIES. ‘‘OUT-OF-DATE SYSTEM.” Au interesting arrival by the Aorangi at'Auckland on-Monday was Mrs Mervyn Cameron, whpjj-with her daughter, Miss Helen Cameron, is returning to England from a'- short 7 holiday in Australia and New Zealand (states the Herald). Mrs Cameron ' spent three weeks in New Zealand before going to Australia and she said she considered the Dominion fully lived up to all she had read and heard of it. In one matter, however, Mrs Cameron said sho was both surprised and disappointed. She thought. the libraries in New Zealand were quite inadequate to the needs of thd -pieoplo. As her husband is assistant chief librarian at the London Metropolitan Library, Mrs Cameron has sonic' knowledge of this subject.

‘‘Reading a Necessity.” “I hope your people will forgive me,” said Mrs Cameron, ‘‘but that is my honest opinion. It is useless to educate children in school to read wisely if provision is not made for them to do so later. It is like teaching a child to love and enjoy playing and then refusing to let him play.” - Although every district seemed to have its own ■ public library, these libraries were not actually public, said Mrs. Cameron. The subscription basis, with a separate charge for ' each book, was not; only out of date, but it should be-quite unnecessary. Reading was not merely a pleasure, -it was. an actual necessity and the high charges at present in force deprived many people of a great ■ pleasure and au active need. Private libraries, she considered, were the greatest drawbacks. Libraries should' be truly public, with a small subscription to cover the loss of a book but with no extra charge. The education of its people was a Government's responsibility and reading was the greatest factor in education. Moreover, the books should bo chosen by a selected body of people with diverse ideas, but with a sense of balance and fastidiousness. Foundation in Schools.

Mrs Cameron said that the art of reading wisely took many years to learn and to-day more time was being devoted in schools to literature and the art of choosing books. No one person should read only one typo of book. People on the whole, said Mrs Cameron, did not seem to have been educated to read. They did not realise that their literature should be chosen as carefully as their meals. It was surprising how few people really read properly, but this was a fault that could be corrected in tho schools. People who were educated to appreciate a good story and a good literary style developed in many unsuspected ways. Reading brought with it the ability to learn another’s opinion, to criticise, to assimilate new ideas and thus acquire a broader and truer outlook. It could both Test and stimulate, and every book read was something learned.