REPORT. 



In issuing their Thirty-fourth Annual Report, the Committee have for 

 the first time to put on record somewhat of a check, if not a retrograde 

 movement in the history of the institution. 



Up to the present period every year has witnessed an extension of 

 usefulness in some department, and during the year just passed a new 

 Eeading Room, being the fifth, has been opened at Low Hill with con- 

 siderable success, and the Museum of Casts, alluded to in the last report, 

 has been completed and located in a large room in the lower story of the 

 Walker Art Gallery. The beautiful Mediaeval and Renaissance work 

 here brought to light and exhibited presents great attraction, and promises 

 to be of great use in the promotion of taste amongst those of the indus- 

 trial classes who are engaged in works where decorative forms are capable 

 of being introduced. 



The other portions of the institution fully maintain their position, and, 

 as will be seen from the statistics which follow, are appreciated and made 

 use of by the public, who in some departments are still pressing for in- 

 creased accommodation. 



Circumstances, however, have recently occurred which threaten seri- 

 ously to affect in future the progress and development of the various 

 branches, if not to require the abandonment of some. 



The institution has been hitherto maintained by a rate of a penny in 

 the pound, supplemented by occasional grants from the surplus fund of 

 the City. As no surplus at present exists, no aid from that quarter can 

 be looked for, whilst in consequence of an alteration in the mode of col- 

 lection, the income from the rate is likely to diminish rather than increase. 



During the past year the expenditure was i613,458, whilst the income 

 from the rate only amounted to aG12,602 14s. 8d., leaving a deficiency of 

 £856. It was evident, therefore, that some steps had to be taken, either 

 to diminish the expenditure — which really means to cripple the usefulness 

 of the institution — or to find some method of increasing the income. 



Following in the steps of Birmingham, Nottingham, and other towns, 

 the Committee proposed to the Council to introduce into a local Bill now 

 pending in Parliament, power to increase the rate when the Council 

 should deem it necessary to l^d. in the pound. When this proposition 



