APPENDIX A XLIX 
have the interesting and not unsatisfactory conclusion that the children 
of Toronto are doing more substantial reading than their seniors. 
You will be pleased to learn that in the same city the juvenile circu- 
lation has increased three fold in two years, having risen in that time 
from 85,000 to 250,000. I doubt not that in other parts of the country, 
where efforts are made to interest children in the use of books, the same 
story is repeated. These facts speak volumes for the increased 
intelligence of the rising generation, and for the intellectual influence 
of the public library. 
As for the extent to which the public libraries are used by the 
people who have access to them, the Report of the Inspector of 
Libraries of Ontario for 1913 shows that on the average each man, 
woman and child in Ontario reads 2-68 books in the year; that, if 
we consider only those who used the libraries, each individual read 
19-8 books in the year; and that on the average each book in the 
libraries was read 2-67 times. 
The preceding facts relate to public libraries in Ontario. I have 
selected that province because there the public library system is 
highly developed. The people of the neighbouring Republic are 
justly proud of their public spirit, their public institutions, and espe- 
cially of their public libraries, but in no state of the Union, I believe, 
is. the library system as advanced as in the Province of Ontario. The 
total number of public libraries in Ontario is 409 (not including 
school libraries); the aggregate number of books is 1,571,214: the 
total assets in books, buildings, etc. is $3,721,929. In Ontario, 
very wisely, the Legislature has placed the public libraries under the 
direction of the Department of Education, thus making them, as they 
should be, part of the educational system. The Legislature and the 
municipalities and counties make grants to them. There is an In- 
spector of Public Libraries, who also reports on historical, literary, 
and scientific institutions in the Province. There is an Ontario 
Library Association, corresponding to the Ontario Educational 
Association; its annual meetings have an attendance of nearly 200, 
and at them matters are discussed and papers read of interest to 
librarians. In addition the Province is divided into fifteen districts, 
and the representatives of libraries in each district are organized into 
a Library Institute whose yearly meetings do much to promote 
intelligent co-operation. There is a Summer Library School. There 
has been established in Toronto a free library for the blind, with 
nearly 4,000 volumes, and about 1,400 pieces of music. Several 
hundred travelling libraries are sent out every year. The Carnegie 
gifts to Canada amount to nearly $3,000,000, and of this large sum 
approximately $2,000,000 has gone to Ontario. There are in Toronto 
