BOOKS THAT ARE READ.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 37

BOOKS THAT ARE READ.

The number of works issued to readers in tho various classes at the Wellington Public Library last year, the librarian reports, was as follows :—Theology and philosophy, 188; history and biography, 1053; voyages, travels and geography, 1075 ; social and political subjects, 233 ; arts and sciences, 402; miscellaneous, 780; fiction, 35,085. There was, he states, a perceptible increase in the issue of fiction and decrease in all other classes of books as compared with tho previous year. In taking notice of tho large percentage of fiction issued it had to be borne in mind that the General Assembly Library circulated in Wellington much literature which was not fiction, and which, but for tho existence of the Library, would be asked for at the. Public Library. Had triphca-te copies been possessed by the Library of the works of Edna Lyall, Mario Corelli and Stanley Weyman, there was no doubt that most of them would have been issued considerably more than 100 times each.

Tho following statistics with regard to the issue of books of various popular authors will prove of interest (the figures relate only to novels, with the exception of those referring to Rudyard Kipling's works): —Mrs Henry Wood, 952 ; Rider Haggard, 810; Edna.' Lyall, 599; Conan Doyle, 556; Marie Corelli, 534; Besant and Rice, and Besant only, 532 ; F. M.

Crawford, 505 ; M. E. Braddon, 457 ; Bertram Mitford, 111-; Mrs Hungerford, 412 ; ILL. Stevenson, 405; Stanley Weyman, 318 ; T. Hardy, 272; Hall Caino, 2(54 j S. R, Crockett, 261 ; Rudyard Kiplin«\ 233 ; Sarah Grand, 22(3 ; Rosa M. Carey, 221 ; Mrs Caffyn, 192 ; J. M. Barrie, 163; Beatrice Whitby, 161; Ada Cambridge, 125. For the sako of comparison, the librarian adds the following figures : Charlos Dickons, 221.; George Eliot, 210; Sir W. Scott, 199 ; W. M. Thackeray, 110. From the reference library 10,611 books were issued, the principal classes being as follows :—Literature, philology, 2915 ; arts, trades, sports, Ac, 20S8; scionce, 1313 ; geography, 111-1; science, 1112. There were all sorts and conditions of readers in the reference Library. Tho total number was 1506 (142 of them

women), and the principal occupations were clerks (including bank and law), 215; teachers, 84 ; domestic duties, 83 ; students (including schoolboys and schoolgirls), 61; engineers, 51; agents and brokers, 32; Civil servants (not classified), 32 ; printers and publishers, 32 ; carpenters and joiners, 31 ; accountants, 27 ; farmers, 26 ; labourers, 25; journalists, 23; clergymen, 22 ; barristers and solicitors, 22 ; settlors, 18; painters and paperhangers, 18; builders, 17; seamen, 17; drapers, 17; surveyors, 15; tailors, 13; draughtsmen, 13; chemists, 12; bootmakers, 12; architects, 11; physicians ami surgeons, 10.