FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8268, 29 May 1890, Page 3

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

TO THE EDITOR. —The attendance at the Free Library in the evenings is now, thanks to the altered hours, less than one-half what it used to be. This is highly satisfactory. The books will be saved from much wear and tear, and the binding acoount will be reduced by quite a number of shillings per annum, what a noble example of cheeseparing! We will all cettainly become millionaires now that the city councillors have supplied us with such an illustrious pattern of the art of pennysaving. Let me suggest to our worthy Mayor that he should repeat his brilliant idea of taking a census of the attendance at intervals during the evening. He will find that for -half-an-hour after opening and before closing there is hardly anyone in the Library. Clearly there is room for still further curtailment of the evening hours, and consequent saving of gas. Continuing this process, we will eventually succeed in getting the Library closed altogether, and then there will be no gas. bills at all. I cordially agree with " H.B. a " letter in this morning y paper. New books, undoubtedly, ought to be purchased direct from London booksellers, such as those he mentions, and not through the expensive medium of a local contractor. The books in the Lending Branch should certainly be at the service of readers who visit the Library. Under the present system some '2000 of the most attractive books in the Library are lying idle on the shelves of the Lending Branch. The tablet in the porch is, aa " H. 8." points out, quite misleading, and should be taken down.—l am, &c„ Stpdbmt.