GENERAL REPORT. 



My " foreword " to our annual report must be one of satisfaction 

 and congratulation. In every department of our work there has 

 been activity and progress, and the Committee's endeavour to render 

 the important institutions under their charge both instructive and 

 entertaining, has undoubtedly met with a large measure of success. 

 A great popular movement must have its critics, some entirely 

 honest, others (the more numerous class) lack that knowledge of 

 practical Library and Museum work to make their criticism of much 

 value; and, perhaps, the greatest fallacy which underlies the 

 remarks upon our institutions which we read so often in the daily 

 and periodical press, is that our Libraries are not sufficiently educa- 

 tional and cater too much for the readers of light literature. Free 

 Public Libraries ought in the first place to be entertaining and 

 attractive; it is only when they succeed in this that they can 

 achieve their second and still greater object, that of being educa- 

 tional and instructive. The first step towards the success of free 

 libraries is to teach people not only how to read but to love 

 leading for its own sake. We cannot do this by placing in their 

 hands books which do not appeal to them or interest them, but we 

 can lead them step by step from the simple story of everyday life 

 which awakens in their hearts chords of responsive sympathy and 

 interest, and they will pass on, it may be slowly but surely, to more 

 serious leading, that which enters into their daily lives aiid, perhaps, 

 assist them to make the fruit of their toil richer and more productive. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in dedicating so much of his princely 

 wealth to the Free Library movement, has undoubtedly struck the 

 very note ot what makes for the prosperity of the multitude by 

 putting into their hands the cheapest form of education, and which 

 also, in the long run, should be the most effectual because it is 

 voluntarv. 



