The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1923. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 13 June 1923, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1923. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Last night a section of the Town Council, the larger portion we regret to say, righteous in having been compelled to relieve the Public Library of a small sum in connection with the Antecedent Liability adjustments this year, adopted a posture suggestive of a misunderstood benefactor when it proceeded to cut from the library estimates a of £2OO from the general fund and to put £92 into the town’s coffers in the form of rates. Some of the arguments advanced for the defence of the Council were peculiarly interesting, and in one or two instances were injurious to the Council’s case. For instance, we find the Mayor admitting that the Corporation did promise to give £2OO out of the general fund for a free reading-room, and that is a statement which gives the Council no loophole large enough to do other than permit it to escape on its hands and knees. The answer made to the contention that this was a promise to the library is that certain members of the old Athenaeum went back on the proposal and opposed the assumption of the institution by the municipality, but we submit that while it mayhave been an answer to the old committee, it is no reply to the institution. Surely the Mayor can separate the old Athenaeum Committee from the institution! We say that the Corporation expressed its willingness to pay a certain sum, £250 or £2OO, for a free reading-room. The library has provided a free reading-room which costs over £2OO a year, and as an institution it is entitled to ask for the redemption of that promise, particularly as this offer of an annual grant for the reading-room was paraded before the parliamentary committee when the Bill for the acquisition of the library was before the House. The inference to be drawn from the mention of this

offer was pretty obvious. We need not refer at any length to the point that the amount spent on books has increased since ' the Council took over control. The institution now serves about three times as many subscribers as it did when it was an independent institution. This fact, taken in conjunction with the vastly increased cost of books, explains why the expenditure must be so much heavier than it was in the days before the Council took over control. It was suggested by Councillor Glass that the reference department, the need for which in a town of Invercargill’s size and situation cannot be exaggerated, is weak in several sections, and the explanation of this is the lack of funds available for this important work. Councillor Macalister last night said that the Council had not got moneys out of the library, and he put forward an estimate of £4OO as the amount of assistance given. He suggested that a great deal of clerical work was done by the town. For that work the general account receives £75 on operations involving under £4OOO. The Gas Department involving over £30,000 paid £4OO, the Tramways involving £26,000 paid £l5O, and the Electricity Department involving £28,000 paid £3OO under these headings. A great deal was made of the reports typed by the central office for the library, but we doubt if the work actually done is as extensive as the Council was last night led to infer, but if the library is not paying enough under clerical transfer, what can be said of the three departments we have mentioned? Councillor Macalister was hard put to it for arguments when he resorted to the plea that the clerical work done at the central office represented special treatment. Then it must be remembered that ever since the Council took control it has taken its toll of rates from the library and latterly from its site in Esk

street. The library itself is an educational institution, and is entitled to secure relief from rates as is the case in other places in the Dominion, but the Invercargill Council has greedily taken the rates each year out of endowment moneys. In addition it voted money from the library funds without legal authority, relieving its own accounts of £25 a year by that means. That sum should be returned to the library. We do not know how Councillor Macalister arrived at theestimate that under the Antecedent Liability liquidation the library is relieved of £330, but if that item is accepted he must set off against it the rates which have been taken out of the institution, the sum involved in non-fulfil-ment of the town’s promise of £2OO a year, and the sum improperly voted. If that adjustment is made, and the grant of £2OO last year is taken into consideration the result will be to show that the Council has no right to be proud of its treatment of the library. While some of the councillors were professing their eagerness to assist the library it was noticeable that a recommendation for a fifth assistant was referred back on the statement of Councillor Miller that a fifth assistant had previously been refused. It would be Interesting to have the date of that vote of the Council. Our information is that two years ago, when the effect* of the shortage of funds for the purchase of books was being felt in a withdrawal of subscriptions, the staff was decreased from five to four. Since then the work has increased and the restoration of the staff, asked for the first time this year, has been recommended. The reference back to the committee is a small thing in itself, but it is symptomatic of the attitude of some councillors to the institution, which is now under-staffed and under-paid.