THE TE KOPURU SAW-MILL LIBRARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5372, 4 February 1879, Page 2

THE TE KOPURU SAW-MILL LIBRARY.

We are requested by the Rev. Mr. Baker, of . the \\ airoa, to publish the following address to the men employed at the Te Kopuru Sawmill, in order tbat his position with respect to the library fund may be understood. He says that many of our readers in Kaipara and elsewhere feel interested in the subject " From remarks that were made towards the close of the meeting held in the hall last evemug, I am led to fear that I failed to make myself generally understood when speaking of the Te Kopuru Library Fund. I have therefore thought it right to place the facts of tho case before you iu writing as clearly X can, so that there may be no further misconception as to the course that has boen pursued with respect to that fund. On my return to Te ICopuru in December from a short visit to Auckland, I found that the mill had been sold, and all the men employed by tho former proprietors had been discharged. Shortly before receiving their dis charge the men had paid their 5s subscription to the library for the quarter commencing December Ist. This, on their applying fo? I<r reo tored to eaoh man when he was paid off, and before it had reached my hands. There now no longer remained any members of the library, with the exception of tho secretary and treasurer, who still paid their subscriptions. The funds in hand for the ordinary purposes of the library about sufficed to meet the liabilities of the late committee. Beyond this there was a sum of £29 16s in hand, contributed by the company as a separate fund for permanent improvements in the way of buildings, draining, &c., at Te Kopuru. During my absence a meeting had been held by the men lately employed, at which it was resolved to appropriate this money to purposes otherthan those for which it was given. It was also resolved that the harmonium in the hall be given to me, and it was forthwith removed from the hall. On learniug that this had been done, 1 had the harmonium returned to the hall, restoring it to its original use. I regarded the whole of the proceedings of the meeting as informal, as the meeting had not been convened by the officers of the library committee, and they were not there to give any information. The agents of the company objected to the proposed appropriation of the money they had deposited with me, and demanded that it should be returned to them. It was represented to me that there were now no subscribers and no committee, and they themselves had ceased to have any interest in tho permanent improvements proposed to be made; moreover, the men had had their subscriptions returned, and it was only right that the company should have theirs. I yielded to their representations, and gave them the money. These were no subscribers to submit the question to, and no committee. I had to exercise my own judgment. If II have done wroDg (in my opinion I have not), it is but an error of judgment, made in the endeavour to do justice to all. The men now employed at the mill are reaping the fruit of the efforts and expenditure of their predecessors, and I pat it to them whether m a spirit of fairness, they could advise that anything else should have been done with the money in hand than what has been done. P\ Thos. Baker, hon. treasurer Te Jtopuru Library, January 28, 1879."