GENERAL REPORT. 



In collating year by year the reports of the Librarian and the Curators 

 of our Museums and Art Gallery in our annual review, the feeling grows 

 stronger that the work being done in our institutions is no longer of a 

 tentative character, but enters largely and beneficially into the daily life 

 of the people. 



The working men who crowd the newspaper stands or fill the reading 

 rooms from early morning to late evening, the students who frequent the 

 Picton Reading Room, the Art Galleries, and Museums, are all equally 

 earnest in degree in acquiring information which has to do with their 

 daily toil, their education, or entertainment ; and although the latter may 

 be primarily the pursuit of the majority, it is gratifying to feel that in so 

 many of these a taste is gradually developed for serious reading and study. 

 The free lectures which for more than a quarter of a century have been 

 delivered in the institution with the object of encouraging and fostering 

 useful reading, are, by their great popularity, no less a source of pleasure 

 and gratification to the Committee. In the much-regretted death of 

 Aldeiman W. J. Lunt, the General Committee feel that they have lost a 

 valuable and useful colleague who gave considerable time and attention, 

 I as Chairman of the Lecture Sub-Committee, to the organization of the 

 several courses of these annual lectures, and to the arrangements necessary 

 to insure their success. 



The past year has been a memorable one in the history of our institution ; 

 we have been enabled by the generous assistance of the City Council to 

 pay off the debt which has for many years seriously encumbered our work, 

 land, although the funds at the disposal of the Committee for the purchase 

 of books have been smaller than usual, we have been enabled out of the 

 fund voted for purchase of technical books to greatly strengthen the 

 practical side of the institution. We have now complete libraries of all 

 recent works on technology at the Central Library and at the three branch 

 libraries, and in order to bring these books directly under the notice of 

 artizans a special catalogue has been printed and distributed among the 

 workshops in the city. The Committee have taken great interest in the 

 developmeut of this branch of their work, and have received the hearty 

 co-operation of the Professors of University College in compiling the list 

 of works which they have added to the library shelves. 



