Public Library Systems. 427 



spends far less on his librar}-, but he takes from, it and reads in it 

 vast quantities of history" and travel and technology, while his women- 

 folk read the novels. The South African uses the librarj- as a sort 

 of occasional club ; he takes his recreative reading from it, and some 

 other more solid mental pabulum, but he is usually a very busy man, 

 whose ideas are focussed rather round his bank book than his library 

 books, and he more often than not is quite content to leave all serious 

 reading and recreative study to* that middle or old age which he 

 devoutly hopes shall find him dwelling out of Africa. Yet his women- 

 folk use the library a great deal, and his boys and girls are being accus- 

 tomed in the schools to a right appreciation of books, and as they 

 grow up they ought not to be permitted to grow out of the custom 

 and the use of them. Home education is the watch-word of the 

 Public Library in South Africa; and we must so develop the librar\- 

 system of the countr\' that not one child who has passed through its 

 schools may remain out of touch with a literary storehouse. 



And this is the crux of the situation here. Our libraries so far 

 as Lending Departments go are essentially subscription libraries and 

 nothing more. I do not desire to belittle the fact that we have read- 

 ing rooms free and open to all, but the duty of the Legislature with 

 regard tO' the librar)- movement will not have ceased until Lending 

 Libraries, free and without charge, are established. Li America we 

 find such developments of the work, and if the Legislatures of Souih 

 Africa, by increased aids, were to add Public Lending Departments, 

 the Subscription Departments would only temporarily suffer, and in 

 the long run would benefit. At Kimberley we have tried the experi- 

 ment of throwing all our rooms open to the subscriber personally 

 for the low annual charge of ^^i, with one book at a time for home 

 reading, while families of three have full personal privileges for ^2 

 annually, and families of five for ;^3 annually. This we have been 

 enabled to do, not by increased Government grants, but because of 

 the great help that we receive from De Beers Company (renting as 

 it does its village library from us at an annual cost of ;£2 00 and 

 giving us in addition ;£2^o per annum), and because in past years 

 not only have the library buildings been built and furnished and 

 stocked, but an endowment fund of upwards of ^^6,000 accumulated 

 to add to our one little legacy. But in Kimberley, with all our 

 resources, we have reached the ultima thule as regards lowering of 

 subscriptions unless the Government is prepared to further recognise 

 the work that we are attempting. The result has been a gratif\'ing; 

 increase of revenue from subscriptions, while the increased use of all 

 departments is remarkable. As always the reading room is free to 

 all to consult or read books in, and it may be said that there are no 

 persons resident in Kimberley to whom the subscription of jQi a 

 year is a real bar to home reading ; yet American experience has 

 shewn rapid increases in the use made of libraries when even smaller 

 barriers have been removed, and I am confident that when the time 

 arrives when the libraries of South Africa are placed more in public 

 control, and larger sums of public money are paid toward their sup- 

 port, their usefulness will be enormously increased. Something 



