4-0 Keport S.A.A. Advancemem of Science. 



cind Shoiedilch, founded in its present form in i89[. The popula- 

 tions vary from 365.000 at Belfast, and u-.ooo at Shoreditch, to 

 30.000 at Richmond, and 39.000 at Carlisle, and the annual expendi- 

 ture varies from ^4,280 at Belfast and ^3.580 at Hampstead, to 

 ^'800 at Darlingtcjn and ^870 at Yarmouth ; but taking the average 

 1 found that a population of 84,000 persons had a librarx income of 

 ^j.SiJ. a stock of jS.ooo books, and issued 73 per cent, of fiction 

 out <if a total annual issue of j 36,000 books. Kimljerlev, with its 

 pnpulation of 15,000 whites, spent la.st year upwards of ^2,000 on 

 its libran. possessed 26.000 books, and issued 75 per cent, of fiction 

 out rif a total of 40.000. If \ou reduce these figures t<t average 

 per unit (jf the jjopulation )<)u find that Kimberley spent 2s. fid. 

 per head on the library, while the average for the twenty Home 

 libraries was only 5d. per head. And if we look at other towns, we 

 find Birmingham does not si)end pd. per head, while Aberdeen spends 

 less than 6d. ; yet if we turn to America we find Boston spending 

 3s. per head and other towns consideral)l\ more. 



But what Boston spends annually on her librar\ per head of 

 her population is found bv the Government, and we must compare her 

 3s. with only 7.2(1. of our 2s. iid. in Kimberley, for the Cape 

 Government only gives us 5.6d. and our Municipality i.6d. ; our local 

 subscribers paying in them.selves for the privilege of using the 

 library a .sum equal to i2.7d. per head of the whole [XDpulation of the 

 town, while our donations from the De Beers Company have equalled 

 4(1. per head of the po])ulation in everv recent vear. 



Equally remarkalile is the number of books read at Kimberley 

 if \()u consider that we have no leisured community' there, but that 

 we are mostly people engaged in hard and laborious wjrk all dav, 

 for last year we is.sued 2-3 books to each unit of our population as 

 compared with only ih books per head in the average of the twentv 

 towns with libraries (^)n the whole rather larger than ours. 



With regard to taxation. American and South African Libraries 

 are practically exempt, but most British lil)raries pav both local nn(] 

 Imperial taxes. 



Art Galleries and Museums are frequentl\ attached to libraries 

 in Knglan(b In .\merica there is a great dearth of Mu.seums and 

 of Art Galleries. Cape Colony possesses onlv five and Natal two, 

 and it would l)e well if the recognition bv Great Britain of the 

 educational function of Librarv Boards bv giving them the charge 

 of Museums and .Art Galleries were copied in South Africa. 



Turning to the libraries themselves, we finti that in .\merica 

 the Reference Departments are small ; the books are nearh all avail- 

 able for home reading. In England the reverse is the case, the 

 Reference being frequently larger than the Lending Dei)artment. In 

 South Africa we frequently adopt a happv medium bv putting our 

 books in the Reference section and jiermitiing their issue on special 

 signature form. The use made of the Reference Dejjartments is 

 difificult to shew in comparison, becau.se it is most unusual in South 

 Africa to keep records of consultations in this department, hut it is 



