"FAIRY GODMOTHER"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21783, 24 April 1934, Page 8

"FAIRY GODMOTHER"

CARNEGIE CORPORATION >■■■-■ r ■■ FOUNDER'S AMAZING GIFTS tr- —: —• • WIDE BENEFITS CONFERRED "The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a modern fairy godmother," said Miss E. Melville, chairman of the Library Committee of the Auckland City Council, in welcoming Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Munn, of Pittsburgh, at a reception in the council chamber yesterday afternoon. Mr. Munn, who is director of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, arrived by the Monterey last week to carry out a survey of the library conditions in New Zealand on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation. Mr. Munn, said Miss Melville, was one of the outstanding librarians in the United States, which was one of-the outstanding library countries in the world.

"The Carnegie Corporation," said Miss Melville, "was established in 1911 ■' by a most remarkable Scotsman, Andrew Carnegie, a man, who, starting life in poverty and with no advantages except a strong body and a healthy mind, yet managed before he died to . rise to prominence as a great manufacturer and the maker of a fortune totalling over £60,000,000. Contrary to general opinion, he was a very cultured man, of original and independent mind, . who was more than able to hold his own with the greatest thinkers of his time. He was a man whom men like Gladstone, Lord Morley and Herbert Spencer < were proud to name a friend. " Drama of Philanthropy " "The Carnegie Corporation of New York was the final act in the Carnegie drama of philanthropy," said the speaker. "Having given away his fortune in amazing gifts during his lifetime, he made a clean sweep of what remained by creating this great corporation with an endowment of 100,000,000 • dollars. The trustees may dispose of only the income, so that the work ,of the corporation will be perpetual. He did not frustrate the future of his beneficence by laying down cast-iron regulations for the carrying out of his wishes. . "The purpose Andrew Carnegie naa in mind when he established the corporation was that its funds should be used for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding among the people of the United States, Canada and the British Colonies. Of the total endowment, 10,000,000 dollars, was set aside iid 1917 for application elsewhere than in the United States. Bythe end of the fiscal year 1931-32 his trustees had disbursed over 136,000,000 dollars, or more than the original capital sum. • Benefits to New Zealand "New Zealand has already benefited by Mr. Carnegie's benefactions in a|| number, of public libraries which he established, and the corporation has continued that interest in our affairs by its gifts to university libraries, the Workers' Educational Association and in other directions, ,; said Miss Melville. "The valuable survey of museums which Mr. Markham carried out in New Zealand last year was due to the corporation's help, and already it has set aside funds for museum development. . s "The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, of which Mr. Munn is director, is part of the magnificent series of institutions in the great steel metropolis associated with the name of Andrew Carnegie. It comprises a library,- an art museum, a museum of science, a hall of music and, in a separate building, a school of technology." ■'