GENERAL REPORT. 



The figures given in the Librarian's Report will lie read with 

 interest as indicative not only of the extent of the Committee's work, 

 but of the public appreciation of the facilities offered to them for 

 reading'. 



The munificence of Mr. Andrew Carnegie in providing public 

 libraries, not only in this country and in the United States, but also 

 in oui' colonies, has directed very special attention to the advantages 

 offered by these institutions. In some of the criticisms which 

 appeared in the public press, the question of the value of free libraries 

 was raised, it being contended that it was doubtful if they repaid the 

 sacrifices which they entail upon the ratepayers for their maintenance. 

 In these days, when everything is valued by its immediate money's 

 worth, or by its success in competitive examination, it is difficult 

 to find a test by which to give a popular idea of the value of an 

 institution which is partly educational and partly recreative and 

 entertaining in its character, and the use of which is also entirely 

 voluntary. If we regard our national system of free education 

 not only as a great aid and stimulus to material progress, but as 

 opening up new avenues of culture, thought, and effort, and creatiug 

 a new appetite which can only be satisfied by literature in one or 

 other of its many forms, we must at once admit that the free library 

 is the natural and necessary complement to our educational system. 

 To educate our citizens up to a point in a classroom, and then to give 

 them no opportunity of continuing it, supplementing it, or making it 

 fruitful for the ordinary affairs of life, would indeed be worse than 

 foolish. Here, then, the free library finds its necessary place, and 

 without it our great educational edifice would be shorn of the capital 

 and cornice which gives to the column and wall their finish and 

 power of sustaining the stresses and strains of the building we have 

 constructed at such a vast cost. That these opportunities are made 

 use of, the figures given by our Librarian abundantly testify. That 

 they are fruitful in large things we can prove by the number of 



