Libraries for Scantily Populated Districts. 527 



find the close relationship which is growing up at Home between 

 the Public Libraries and this Union. Almost invariauiy where the 

 suggested courses and readings have been adopted, there has been 

 an increased interest in the non-fictional contents of libraries, and 

 " a general levelling-up and encouraging advance would almost 

 certainly follow if the members of the Union in a district would 

 take anearnest and practical interest in the management and improve- 

 ment of libraries." 



In South Africa the work of this Union has been much helped 

 by the Guild of Loyal Women, and I know of no nobler work for 

 a band of ladies than the taking under their charge of the improve- 

 ment of our libraries, and the extension of their work In small 

 villages and in places where people otherwise would not have the 

 energy to establish reading circles or clubs, through the efforts of 

 the Guild branches of the Union have been formed and good work 

 is being done — in Namaqualand there is a circle, while in Gnqualand 

 East a band of young farmers meet regularly under the leadership 

 of a farm teacher to read. In the Orange River Colony, with the 

 kind assistance of the S.A. Constabulary, it has been found possible 

 to stimplate interest in books and reading in " remote districts " ; 

 at Libode and at Umtata good work is being done — and the people 

 in the scantily populated districts are being awakened to the use 

 of books and the value of the Union. 



And now in conclusion of what is a discursive paper — may I 

 once more point to the case of the schools, and ask if the example 

 of their passing from the voluntary to the compulsory may not 

 afford us a solution of the library problem. In the schools of the 

 future we are told that the state will provide compulsory elementary 

 education for every child free of charge — out that all higher educa- 

 tion shall be still voluntary. Can we not mould our libraries in the 

 same plan, use our state aid for the establishment and upkeep of 

 libraries easily accessible to all, whether in town or country, con- 

 sisting of the great works of the world, and can we noc leave to a 

 super-added voluntary system the provision of that lighter and more 

 recreative reading that is after all more of a luxury than a necessity ? 



I have tried to plead the case of the educated man in the 

 hinterland to a share in the benefits of a possibly improved library 

 system, and I would ask you to remember that if he does not get 

 this share you will only reproduce in this country the problems of 

 the older lands — where the first result of a compulsory education 

 that came into being without the provision of any attractions for 

 the educated man in the country was to attract the people from the 

 country to congest in the cities, and where every effort is now con- 

 centrated in the cry " Back to the Land." 



Even in this comparatively new country the travellers have over 

 and over again observed how through the lack of educational 

 facilities the children of educated parents have fallen into the 

 blackest and worst of ignorance — and I would suggest that having 

 caught your child and accustomed him to the use of books during 



