DUNEDIN ATHENAEUM

Otago Witness, Issue 3489, 25 January 1921, Page 7

DUNEDIN ATHENAEUM

The report of the Dunedin Athen®um> Committee, which is to be submitted to the annual meeting of subscribers to the institute, contains tho following clauses: The receipts for the year from all sources amounted to £2068 Oa lQd, and the expends ture to £lßl4 IQs 3d. The debit balance, which at the close of 1919, was £397 8s Bd, was reduced by £253 10s 7d, and now stands at £143 lSs Id. During the year tho sum of £304 14s lid was expended in the purcha.se of books ,as against £223 10s lOd during 1919. The average membership for the year was 1945, as against 1821 for tho previous year. The library now contains 26,119 works, represented by 26,177 volumes. During the year 341 volumes were struck o£E the catalogue and offered for sale to members and others. The accessories numbered 875 works (in 90S volumes) of which 513 were works of fiction and 362 works in other departments of literature. The total number of issues of books from the library during the year waa 58,819. The details of the issue are as follow :—Science, 137; useful arts, 70; fine and recreative arts, 52; social and political science, 279; philosophy and religion, 154; history and geography, 1948; biography and correspondence 989; language and literature 72; poetry and drama, 167; miscellaneous works (including magazines in book form), 246; fiction, 54,705. The statement of receipts and expenditure shows the principal receipts to bo as follow: —Subscriptions, £1277 12s 3d; rents, £656; share of rent from museum endowment,’ £B7 16s. The chief items cf expenditure are :—Newspapers bought in New Zealand, £43 19s 2d; magazine and foreign papers, £l9l 5s 8d; books bought locally, £2lB 6s 7d; books bought at Home, £B6 8s 4d; salaries, £677 8s 6d; gas and electricity, £Bl 15s 6d; interest, £lB2 Os 9d j repairs and improvements, £lO6 10s 2d.