"VINDICATOR."

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1444, 4 July 1868, Page 4

"VINDICATOR."

To the Editor of the Hctald,

Sla, —l fee from your notices correspondents that a complaint has beon mide to you about tho want of civility on tho part of the Librarian at tho Mechanics' InatiJufe. T have much pleasure in bearing testimony ta the great improvement which has taken placo in Ihe management o{ the Mechanics' Institute. Only a few weeks ago that institute was the dirtiest place of the kind that I ever saw in my life, now everything i; tidy and in good order, although the present secretary has only one-half of the salary that was paid to bis predecessor. Moreover, since tho new secretary took office, and put tho place into decent order, fresh subscribers are coming in,—and judging from ,my intiinato knowledge of the management of that institution, I prreatly fear that the fault is not to bo iound with the librarian, but with the visitors. Since the arrival of tho last English mail, the very first day that the English papers and magazines wero laid upon the table, two copies of " Punch " disappeared, and have not yot been returned. The magazines also disappear in an equally mysterions manner, and it is nothing unusual for a party to walk into tho reading-room, deposit one magazino, nnd take away ono or two others, without recognizing or consulting ths secretary about the matter at all. This abuse tho present official is determined to rectify, and for the credit of tfcio institution it is to be hopod that suoh low practices will be speedily suppressed.—l am, &c., A Subscbzbeb. June 30, 1868.