E.—l3

1900. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: SUBSIDIES TO PUBLIC LIBRARIES (PAPERS RELATING TO DISTRIBUTION OF). [In continuation of E.-13, 1899.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

I.—Exteact from the New Zealand Gazette, 2nd November, 1899. Education Department, Wellington, 30th October, 1899. Notice is hereby given that the sum of £3,000 has been voted by Parliament for distribution to public libraries. The distribution will take place on the Bth February, 1900, and no claim will be entitled to consideration that shall not have been sent in in due form and received by the Secretary for Education, Wellington, on or before the 31st January, 1900. A library to be entitled to a subsidy must be public in the sense of belonging to the public, and of not being under the control of an association, society, or club, whose membership is composed of a section of the community only, and if'within a borough it must be open to the public free of charge. The receipts for the year must not have been less than £2, exclusive of moneys received from endowments, or from Government, or from Borough or County Councils, or for special building purposes, or as rent, hire, or consideration for the use of any room, or building, or land belonging to the institution, in respect of none of which will subsidy be allowed. The net proceeds of concerts, lectures, or other entertainments on behalf of the current expenses of the library will be regarded as voluntary contributions. A subsidy will not be given to more than one library in the same town. In the division of the vote a nominal addition of £25 will be made to the amount of the income of each library derived from subscriptions, donations, and rates, and the vote will be divided according to the amounts thus augmented ; but no library will receive credit for a larger income than £75 —that is, in no case will the augmented amount on which distribution is based exceed £100. The whole of the subsidy must be expended in the purchase of books for the library. Application to share in the distribution must be by means of a statutory declaration by the Chairman, or Secretary, or Treasurer of the institution on behalf of which it is made, and must be accompanied by a statement of the receipts and expenditure of the institution for the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1899, and such declaration must be on the form provided for the purpose, which form shall be as follows : — Declabation. I, [Name], of [Place of abode], [Occupation], do solemnly and sincerely declare that lam Chairman [or Secretary, or Treasurer] of the [Name of institution] ; that during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1899, the receipts of the aforesaid institution for the maintenance of the library only were as follows: Prom rates levied by a local governing body under "The Public Libraries Act, 1869," pounds shillings and pence ; from the subscriptions of members, pounds shillings and pence ; and from voluntary contributions other than members' subscriptions, pounds shillings and pence. And Ido solemnly and sincerely declare that the information hereinafter furnished by me in the appendix hereto is correct in every particular; that the abstract of accounts is a true statement of the receipts and expenditure of the institution for the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1899; and that by the rules of the institution admission to the reading-room is open to the public free of charge. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of an Act of the General Assembly of New Zealand intituled " The Justices of the Peace "Act, 1882." (Signature.) Declared at , this day of , 1900, before me— , Justice of the Peace [or Solicitor, or Notary Public]. [Here affix and cancel a stamp at Ss. 6d.] [Note. —The words relating to free admission may be struck out if the library is not in a borough. The words in brackets are not part of the form, but indicate matter to be inserted or substituted.] Copies of the form of application may be obtained from the Secretary of Education, Wellington, and from the Secretary of any Education Board. W. C. Walkbe.