PATEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 58, 10 March 1937, Page 3

PATEA

PERSONALS Mr L. Moore has returned from North Auckland, and will later take up a position on the East Coast. Mrs F. Just, who has been the guest of Mrs H. Moore, has returnee! to Palmerston North. Mrs J. W. Bourke has returned from the north. Mr W. G. Belton, chairman of ihe Patea County Council, attended the diamond jubilee banquet of the Taranaki County Council last evening at New Plymouth. Mrs Cavill, of Wanganui, is the guest of Mrs D. Roots. Mrs M. Cummins has returned from Wellington. Mrs Adams, Mount Roskill, who nas been Mrs C. H. Carey's guest, has left for Nelson. Miss Egan, from Australia, is the guest of Mrs T. A. Crawford. Mrs J. Crawford is home on a visit from Australia. Mr F. Ramsbottom, Mayor of Patea, and Mr L. W. Austin, town clerk, are attending the municipal conference at Timaru. They are accompanied by Mesdames Ramsbottom and Austin. MINIATURE RIFLE CLUB OPENING NIGHT Mr J. Bates was the winner of the all-comers cup at the opening or the Patea Miniature Rifle Club on Monday night, with a possible 70. T. Floyd was runner-up with 69. Good scores were put up by the visitors, who were welcomed by the president, Mr N. Coad. Serving of supper concluded the evening’s shooting. BOWLING On Thursday morning four rinks of Auckland bowlers meet four Patea rinks on the Patea green. (Continued on Page 9). Library Association overlapped in many ways, the formerly largely financing the later. The last “annual" report of the Libraries’ Association, he remarked, dated back to 1930, it having been impossible to hold a representative meeting during recess since that time. Mr. Hall then read his report, which was as follows: Future of the Library. "It was not until my attention was recently called to the matter, that I realised the length of time that has ejapsed since our last general meeting, tor this, as your secretary, 1 suppose I should apologise. The reason, if 1 lapse was the difficulty experienced in remember rightly, for the original getting a meeting during the closing weeks of the year, and the equal difficulty in the opening months when sports and institute meetings are being held. Thus it has come about that, with Ihe library functioning normally and the accounts being regularly audited by the Education Board, no matters of special importance have arisen, and so no meeting has been held. "The central library has been in existence now for 13 years. During the first two years, 15 schools joined in, and most —if not all—of these are still nominally in membership. The condition of membership was a voluntary donation from time to time, the amount being left to Ihe ability and goodwill of each school concerned. At first most, of the schools responded fairly well, but as time went on some of them gave only occasionally, and it became recognised by those who took part in the annual sports that the prize money allocated should be j handed over to the library. During the past four years this has been the principal source of income. Since 1930 there has been no Government subsidy on contributions. but the Education Board has made small grants of assistance. Once during this period we have also received a grant from the Macarthy Trust. “The amount spent on books during the past six years has been £ll7 13s 4d. The number of volumes in the catalogue at the present time is about 4500, but from this there must be made considerable reduction owing to books being withdrawn or discarded through wear and tear, so that the total number of books in actual use and circulation is probably somewhere round about 3500. "The accounts of the association have been audited each year by the Wanganui Education Board’s accountant. The treasurer of the board acts as treasurer, and all accounts are paid through him after the senior inspector has approved of the books purchased. It will thus be seen that the board has exercised supervision over the association’s finance as well as over the suitability of the books obtained. "In closing, I would like to refer to the services rendered to the library, until his recent departure from the D.H. Schoo), by Mr. W. R. McNab, the librarian, upon whom for some years devolved the rather strenuous task of sorting out and exchanging the books for the various schools; in addition to which he spent considerable time in repairing loose and damaged .volumes. It is largely owing to Mr. McNab’s departure, and also the difficulties relative to storage and handling of the books at the central school that have created, the present position, and have led to the necessity for carefully considering the future of the library, namely, as to whether it should be continued in its present (or modified) form, or whether some arrangement should be come to by which the books could be equitably divided between the participating schools, leaving each of these free in the future to establish and maintain its own separate library. This is the main question which the present meeting is asked to discuss.” The financial statement showed that since 1930 £ll7 13s 4d had been expended on books, the balance in the hands of the treasurer, Wanganui Education Board, being £1 9s 2d. Contributions apart from grants from the board in the six years had totalled £B3 0s 4d. Thanking Mr. Hall for his statement and the work which the library had obviously entailed, the chairman expressed the opinion that it was evident that the time was ripe for decentralisation, and he would suggest that a committee be set up to consider such a move. Mr. Hempieman said that Mr. Hall and Mr. McNab were deserving of recognition for their sterling services in literally carrying the schools’ library along on their shoulders. It was owing to the efficiency of their work, Mr. Hall in buying books and acting as librarian, and Mr. McNab in keeping the books in as good order as possible, that a general meeting had not

been necessary for six years. Mr. Tucker supplemented these sentiments, a vote of thanks being carried by acclamation. Motion for Decentralisation. Mr. Tucker gave notice of motion as follows: “That the present system of supplying books to schools by means of the Central Library Association be discontinued and the contents be distributed pro rata among the schools concerned to found their own individual libraries.” It was decided to convene the special meeting in four weeks’ time, Monday. Anrjl 5.-