CHAIRMAN’S PREFACE. 5 
removal of the turnstiles from the Museum Entrance is also in 
contemplation. Every one of the buildings under the Committee 
will then have its doors wide open to the public. 
The Art Galleries became the richer in 1910 by the addition of 284 
pictures, etchings, and other works of art, as against 195 in 1909. 
The Curator in his Report again emphasizes, and rightly so, the 
increasingly urgent need there is for an extension of the Galleries, 
so as to obviate the present unfortunate necessity for taking down 
the Permanent Collection before the Autumn Exhibition can be 
placed. 
The Committee find it an anxious and difficult task, on their 
restricted income, to carry on and keep thoroughly efficient the 
varied and increasingly numerous Institutions under their charge. 
It must be borne in mind that nearly all the recent additions to 
them have been made to carry out statutory obligations undertaken 
by the City Council in the several recent extensions of the City. 
The Institutions which the Committee have now to carry on 
include a Reference Library of 158,152 volumes, 11 Lending 
Libraries with a total annual issue of 1,597,123 volumes, Reading 
Rooms, some attached to the Libraries and some not, with an 
average daily attendance of many thousands, 185 Evening Lectures 
to audiences numbering last year 81,160, and Museums and Art 
Galleries receiving 856,000 visitors in the year. Their efforts to 
make all these varied and valuable Institutions of the greatest 
possible benefit to the City will be maintained to the fullest extent, 
but they may find it necessary to ask for some additional help in 
doing so. 
May I add that the responsibility for the somewhat late date of 
issue of this volume is entirely mine. The officials had their Reports 
ready some time ago, but, owing to various circumstances, it has, 
I regret to say, been impossible for me to sooner provide this usual 
preface. 
FRANK J. LESLIE, 
CHAIRMAN. 
