DUNEDIN ATHENAEUM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18774, 30 January 1923, Page 9

DUNEDIN ATHENAEUM

ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of subscribers .to the Dunedin Athenaeum was held last night, Mr F. W. Clayton (vice-president) presiding. Mr Clayton, in moving the adoption of the annual report, as published recently, said their finances showed a distinct improvement, as they started the last year with a debit balance of £ll6, and finished ■with a credit of about £56. They had also slightly improved their membership. One useful feature of the work which had been introduced during the year was that, with a view to securing more efficient protection ag:ilinst tire introduction of undesirable books, they had allocated the duty of examining reviews to all the members of the committee. The best defence, however, was to develop the taste and judgment of their readers, so that they might exercies their own discrimination. As showing the popularity of fiction with the majority of subscribers, Mr Clayton mentioned that the issues of fiction totalled 69,000, while all the other books only amounted to about 10 per cent, of the whole. Mr A. Isaacs seconded the report. He pressed the desire of the subscribers for an alteration in the rules so that they might reserve books of fiction, and suggested that in the case of popular books several copies should be procured. The Chairman said something had already been done in that respect, and after some discussion agreed that the immediate business before them was consideration of the report. The report was then adopted. The following office-bearers were ap-pointed:—Vice-president, Mr R- Vanes; hnn. secrectary, Mr P. Goyen; hon. treasurer. Mr F. \V. Clayton: auditors, Messrs G. W. Canter and W. O. Walker; librarian, Mr H. F. Bastings; committee—Rev. Dr Dickie, Dr R. D. Milligan, Dr G. E. Thompson, Messrs W. Alexander, W. 11. Duke, J. M. Paterson, J. L. Salmond, A. Watt, and T. O. Brebner. Mr Isaacs then moved that the rule regarding the reservation of kooks be rescinded so as to allow members to reserve books of fiction for a payment of 3d. The motion was declared carried by 16 votes to 7. Later, however, the chairman announced that it was required to be carried- by twothirds of those present, and that a recount would have to be taken. (There were about 30 present.) Mr Isaacs objected to this course, but a vote was taken after a few members had been brought in from the adjacent rooms, and some at the back of the reading room gathered in with the others. The -motion was lost, the voting being 18 to 15. Mr Isaacs then suggested as a recommendation to the committee that extra copies of popular novels should be procured. It was resolved to hold the annual meeting in future in the middle of February, the original motion, which proposed March, being defeated. A motion proposing that nominations for the committee should close a fortnight before the date of the annual meeting was lost on the vote.