DUNEDIN ATHENÆUM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21549, 22 January 1932, Page 4

DUNEDIN ATHENÆUM

ANNUAL REPORT The annual report of the Dunedin Athenaeum, which will be presented at the annual meeting on February 8, states, inter alia:— The receipts for the year were £3415, an increase of £55 on last year. Subscriptions were increased by £3B. The actual expenditure was £3315. The net result of the year’s finance is that the bank overdraft has been further reduced by £IOO, from £sll to £4ll, in spite of an increased expenditure on books and on library assistance. The committee views this result with satisfaction, particularly since receipts and membership have both shown such an increase as, combined with the evidence of book issues, warrants thd belief that the institution is making constant progress. During the year the sum of. £896 10s 2d was expended in the purchase of books as against £725 11s lid during 1930. The cost of magazines and newspapers for the year was £324 18s sd, as against £343 2s 5d for the previous year. Both sets of costs have been unfortunately affected by the adverse rate of exchange. The net increase in the number of members for the year was 101. The accessions numbered 3265 works (in 3280 volumes), of which 2803 were works of fiction and 482 works in other departments of literature. The library now contains 38,606 works, represented by 42,650 volumes. During the year 1414 volumes were withdrawn from the library and offered for sale to members and others. The total number of issues of books from the library during the year was 255,247, as against 239,987 for 1930. The details of the issues are as follows Science, 320; fine and recreative arts, 129; useful arts, 201; social and political science, 259; philosophy and religion, 109; history and geography, 2637; biography and correspondence, 1793; language and literature, 31; poetry and drama, 605; miscellaneous works (iaeluding magazines in book form), 402; fiction, 248,761. As prizes for proficiency in English and history, 79 tickets of membership were presented by the committee to the pupils of the secondary and primary schools of the city and suburbs. The committee is glad that the new departure of selling new and secondhand books appears to have proved useful to members. A very gratifying indication of the interest taken by members in the institution was the offer by Mr Alfred Crawford of a free membership prize, to be offered annually for competition among boys attending the Dunedin Technical High School. Mr Crawford s gift was gratefully accepted, and conditions have been drawn up and approved by him and by the committee.