KAITAIA LIBRARY

Northern Advocate, 15 August 1935, Page 3

KAITAIA LIBRARY

IN BACKGROUND. REST ROOM TO THE FORE. “What about the plans for the new library?” asked Mr Archibald, at Monday evening's meeting of the Kaitaia Town Board. The chairman; "We must call a meeting to which outsiders interested’ can be invited.” The Town Clerk; “The board could ) decide on the main outlines of the proI pcsal.” The chairman: “The first thing we have to decide is. how much we can spend.” The Town Clerk: “The board could decide on the principles of the building and the cost, and' if there is to bo a future town hall on- the site, in which case the library could' be built so as to be at the back.” The chairman: “Is it definite that it should be in Centenary Park?” Mr Peace; “I don’t know that it should be there.” The chairman: “If the building is not going to be part of a town hall, it would be quite in order to build the rest room opposite the council chambers.” Mr Archibald: “It will be a long time before we will have a town hall, and that should not be used as an obstruction.” Mr Rutledge: “I am definitely in favour of a rest room in Centenary Park.” The Town Clerk; “Is the idea to shift the books from Mr Timbers’ shop to the new building?” The chairman said the question- of salary for a caretaker would come in then. They might make sufficient provision, when erecting a rest room, for housing the library books which could not be accommodated by Mr Timbers, but he did not think a library building should be incorporated under the present scheme. They could not provide both now, and the library could come later. The success of the library had been due to the fact that books could be changed at any time, and the attention given by Mr Timbers. Mr Rutledge: “The donations we have received are not for a library, but a rest room.” The chairman: “We have disposed of the library, and must make provision for the books, and it might be advisable to make some books available at the rest room.” Mr Archibald: “It may not cos? much more to provide a library and reading room as well as a rest room. If anything is done it should be in keeping with the progress of the town, or we would not. be doing our duty. We should spend a sum in the vicinity of £500.” The chairman: “I did not think we could do it on that.” I Mr Peace: “With what we will get from the library, the £IOO from the board, and the donations, we have about £315 in sight, and we could get a subsidy of £24.” Mr Archibald: “As soon as the need is made known the various districts will contribute.” The chairman: “Unfortunately, we are up against the Queen Carnival.” Mr Archibald: “We should not let that cripple our project.” The chairman: “l r would like to see a nice building, but the board can’t go beyond £IOO towards it. though we might be able to get cheap labour.” Mr Archibald 1 : “We might get a fair donation of timber.” Mr Rutledge: “One fact must not be overlooked, and that is we must have someone to look after the rest room.” The chairman: “We may get someone to do that for a few shillings a week. .It would not be necessary to have attendance all the time.” Mr Peace favoured the present arrangement, by which the books were kept at Mr Timbers’ shop. The revenue had increased greatly since Mr Timbers was made librarian.” The Town Clerk: “We must have something we can reasonably call a library. We have soldi the old building, and must provide something to take its place. The next question is: ‘Are we going to have the board’s offices on the same site?’ ” Mr Peace: “All we should provide for is a reading room and rest room.” The chairman said he did not think there would be any insurmountable difficulty in the way of providing a library, reading room and rest room. It was finally decided that Messrs. Peace, Clark and Archibald be a committee to prepare plans.