NELSON LITERARY INSTITUTION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 383, 7 July 1849, Page 73

NELSON LITERARY INSTITUTION.

The Annual General Meeting of this society was held in the Reading-room of the institution on Monday last. In the absence of the President, F. Jollie, Esq., filled the chair. The Secretary read the following-Re-port :—: — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen—The committee appointed at the annual meeting last year, have now to make their report on the affairs of the institution during the intervening period. In accordance with a resolution passed in November, 1848, the books belonging to the institution were, at the beginning of this year, removed from Mr. Elliott's to the Readingroom, where book-shelves had been constructed for their safe custody, and the services of Mr. Staunton wers obtained as librarian, to take charge of them. This arrangement, however, has not been found satisfactory, as the expense of the librarian (£2O a-year) is greater than the funds of the institution will afford. The committee have therefore found it necessary to dispense with Mr. Staunton's services, and have not, as yet, made any arrangement for the future custody of the library. On a subject of such importance, they would rather take the sense of the body of members. The committee would merely observe, that for the preservation of the books, it seems absolutely necessary the library should not be left open as heretofore, while, on the other hand, there is the difficulty of getting any person to take charge of it for the small remuneration which the institution can afford to give. The meeting will remember that a sum of £60, has been for some time owing to the institution from the New Zealand Company, being the remainder of the sum of £100 which the Company originally promised to contribute to its funds. Through the kindness of Mr. F. D. Bell, the Company's Resident Agent, the committee are in the hopes of shortly obtaining the money, which they propose to in rest, as far as it will go, in the purchase of the following books :— The Family Library-— Life of Buonaparte, 2 vols.; Life of Alexander the Great; Lives of British Artists, 6 vols. ; History of the Jews, 3 vols.; Insects, 2 voh.; Court and .Camp of Buonaparte; Life and Voyages of Columbus ; Life of Nelson, by Southey ; Lives of British Physicians j History of British India, 4 vols. ; Deruonology and Witchcraft, by Scott ; Life and Travels of Bruce ; Voyages of Columbus's Companions; Venetian History, 2 vols.; History of the Anglo-Saxons ; Lives of Scottish Worthies, 3 vols.; Tour in South Holland; Life of Sir Isaac Newton; Reformation in England; Mutiny of the Bounty; Landor's Travel's in Africa, 2 vols.j Salmagundi, by Washington Irving; Trials of Charles Land the Regicides; Drewster's Natural Magic; Life of Peter the Great; Six Months in the West Indies; Sketch-Book, by Irving, 2 vols.; Tytler'a General History, 6 vols.j Croker's Fairy Legends; Memoirs of the Plague, by De Foe and Brayley; Life and Times of General Washington; Knickerbocker's History of New York; Wesley's Philosophy, 3 vols. ; Life of Ali Pasha; Segur's Narrative of Napoleon's Expedition to Russia, 2 vols. ; Lives of Banditti and Robbers; Sketches of Imposture, Deception, and Credulity ; History of the Bastile ; History of Gustavus Adolphus; Chronicles of London Bridge; Life of the Duke of Marlborough ; Life of Cervantes, by Roscoe ; Life of Cicero; Ruins of Cities, 2 vols.; Life of Richard Cceur de Lion; Life of Mahomet; Peril and Sufferings, 2 vols. ; Eustace's Classical Tour in Italy, 3 vols.; Lives of Individuals who have been raised from Poverty to Fortune : 79 vols. Collection of Autobiographies ; Colonial Library, complete; Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Natural Philosophy series, 13 vols — Preliminary Discourse, by Sir J. Herschel; History of Natural Philosophy, by Professor Powell ; Arithmetic, by Dr. Lardner; Astronomy, by Sir J. Herschel; Mechanics, by Kater and Lardner; Optics, by Sir D. Bre water; Heat, by Dr. Lardner; Chemistry, by Professor Donovan ; Hydrostatics and Pneumatics, by Dr. Lardner ; Geometry, and its Application, by Dr. Lardner; Essay on Probabilities, by Professor De Morgan; Electricity and Magnetism, by|Dr. Lardner. Library of Useful Knowledge, Natural Pbilosopy, 4 vols., 8 vo.; Fielding's Works; Defoe's Works; Smollett's Works; Swift's Works; Sterne's Works; Ranke's Popes; Alison's Life of Marlborough; Alison's Modern Europe ; Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry; The Book of the Farm; Carlyle's Hero Worship; Carlyle's Chartism ; Carlyle's Past and Present; Carlyle'e French Revolution ; Carlyle's Letters of Cromwell, &c. ; Dickens Works; Vestiges of Creation; Nicol's Architecture of the Heavens ; Pictorial History of England; Mill's Essays on Political Economy. 1848; Lyall's Elements of Geology; Lyall's North America; Smith's Standard Library ; History of France under the Consulate,

By amount

&c, by Thiers; Moore's Poems; Burns's Poems; Southey's Poems; Wordsworth's Poems; Ure's Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences; Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest; Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places, Ist and 2nd series; Howitt's History of Priestcraft; a late work on Shipbuilding; ditto on Rope-making ; ditto on Sail-making ; Chamber's Journal, new series, Vol. I. to XII. ; Penny Magazine, complete. The next subject to which the committee find it necessary to advert, is the lectures, which, during the autumn, were delivered fortnightly in the Reading-room. They have not succeeded quite so well as the committee hoped and desired, and, for some weeks past, no one has been found willing to give a lecture. The committee are in hopes, however, that they will presently be resumed, and, as this branch of the institution becomes better known, that it will receive greater encouragement than it has ytt done. Turning now to the intneial state of the institution, the following statement, prepared by Mr. Jenkins, the Treasurer, is submitted to the meeting :— Da. To amount of subscriptions received 4 ». d. from July Ist, 1848, to June 30th, 1849 26 10 0 To admission fees from five lectures .16 6 £27 16 6 Cb. 4 „ d. By amount paid to Stallard . . .10 0 By ditto to Morrison & Sclanders for periodicals and newspapers . . 912 11 By part expense of partition in room . 2 10 0 By salary to Librarian to this date .11 3 0 By sundry small expenses . . .16 0 By balance in the hands of Treasurer .247 £27 16 6 To the £2 48. 7d. in the hands of the Treasurer, may be added £7 for subscriptions not yet paid up, but which are considered recoverable, making the assets to amount altogether to £9 4s. 7d. Against this is a debt of £6 10s., due to Messrs. Morrison and Sclanders for periodicals, and £6 Bs. 4d. to Mr. Elliott for advertising and stationery, and an advance to the carpenter for fitting up the library, so that there is an actual deficit at the present moment of £3 13s. 9d. In order to secure the more punctual pay raent of subscriptions, the committee have prepared a bye-law (which they will submit to-day for the sanction of the meeting), making it necessary for candidates for admission to deposit a quarter's subscription with the Secretary when proposed for election, and limiting the time during which members may suffer their subscriptions to fall into arrears. It is thought that an inconvenience, which has been of rather frequent occurrence, that of persons who, not having paid their first subscription at the time of their election, have subsequently declined to consider themselves as members, and again offered themselves as candidates for election, will, if this bye»law be adopted, be henceforth obviated. In the statement of accounts furnished by the Treasurer, no notice was taken of a sum of £16, remitted to Mr. Rintoul, of London, three or fours years ago, for the purchase of books for the library, but of which no account has ever been rendered by that gentleman. The small deficit mentioned in the Report, it was shown, would be covered by the subscriptions for the present quarter, now payable, and, with the proposed reduction in the expense of the librarian, and discontinuing the London daily newspaper, the committee had every prospect of seeing the funds for the ensuing year amply sufficient to cover all necessary charges. The report having been received, * the following gentlemen were elected officers for the next year : — President, Mr. Sclanders ; Vice-President, Mr. J&ie ; surer, Mr. Jenkins ; Secretary ,JHr. Arnold £• Committee, Rev. T. D. NicifMion, andi Messrs. Stafford, Elliott, Wilson, \rad Robinson. On the motion of Mr. Stafiord, a committee was appointedtto revise the existing laws of the institution, and to report at a general meeting on the Ist of August next. On the motion of the Rev. S. Ironside, the thanks of the meeting were given to the retiring officers. Thanks were also given to the Chairman for bis conduct in the chair.