EPHEMERAL FICTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 25, 21 May 1914, Page 4

EPHEMERAL FICTION.

Councillor R. McK. Morisbn's pro-j test against the class of books with which our Public Library shelves is being loaded, lias been taken note of by a writer in the "Lyttelton Times" who remarks that "occasionally a voice is raised in protest against the excess of ephemeral fiction in the public lending libraries of the dominion, but little heed is paid to the cry i in the wilderness by the public bodies which furnish the citizens with this literature as well as with their gas and their water. A borough councillor in Stratford, however, has just distinguished himself by boldly criticising the quality of the printed matter in the lending library of his borough and by declaring that much of it is 'trash.' The suggestion is made that the town's fount of knowledge should be improved by obtaining some works of reference and books that would assist literary students. The trouble is, of course, that for every 'literary student' who wishes to bury himself in Prescott's 'Mexico' or to verify a date in Taranaki's history there are a hundred who want to devour 'The Blue Chrysanthemum.' "