TOURIST LIBRARY

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6411, 6 November 1923, Page 4

TOURIST LIBRARY

(To the Editor.) JotSir, —May I ask that you be good enough to throw the beams of your searchlight upon a matter which at present is somewhat obscure to myself and others. Upon reading the report of the Borough Council proceedings in your last issue I must confess to being a little nonplussed as to the attitude adopted by the Council when dealing with a letter from the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts in which it says “that the library books (some 918) are to be handed over to the Council and that the Council can have temporary use of the present library until premises are procured by the Council.” I cannot understand why the Council did not at once close with so generous an offer. Does the Council wish to create the impression that it deliberately favors shirking its responsibility in this matter by trying to foist upon the Government a duty which the Borough owes to the town. I am led to understand that the De partment have for a number of years maintained the present library though the Council have by a tremendous ef fort subsidised the Department by voting the magnificent sum of £lO a year, this notwithstanding the fact that,? the Borough receives from the Government four or five hundred pounds a year from ground rents without costing the Council a penny to collect. The action of the Council in this matter is to my mind to be deplored, and one not being calculated to commend itself to the majority of fair minded men and women. The pertinent question may here be asked will the Council assert its sclfrcliance and desist in continually approaching the Government cap in hand, humbly soliciting to be relieved of the legitimate functions pertaining to that body, viz., the erection of a public library Avorthy of the of Te Aroha ?-*-I am, etc., » NEW ZEALANDER.