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TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



OP THE 



Free Library and Museum Committee, 



FOR THE YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 1896. 



HHHE Free Library and Museum Committee have very much pleasure 

 *- in presenting to the Council their Twenty-fifth Annual Report. 



The Institution was never in a more flourishing condition than at 

 present, nor more appreciated by the ratepayers. The issues of books are 

 considerably in advance of last year's, and although fewer new books have 

 been added, the Library is well up to date in all important particulars. 

 The total number of books now in the Library is 28,858. This is 315 less 

 than last year, but over 1,200 books have been withdrawn as worn out 

 and obsolete, a great number of which are not worth replacing. 

 Those interested in the minuter details of the work done are referred to 

 the tables which accompany this Report, and to the Librarian's com- 

 ments upon them. 



The Children's Library, which had just been started at the time of 

 the last Report, has had a very successful year, and there are over 700 

 borrowers between the ages of 8 and 14 who are being supplied with 

 suitable literature. These young folks took out upwards of 21,000 books 

 during the year, and the success which has attended this department has 

 fully justified its establishment. 



The Committee are now able to report also on a year's work at the 

 Arboretum Branch Reading Room. The number of visitors has been 

 carefully recorded during six months of the year, and the attendance 

 in those six months has reached 54,135. Averaging this for the year, the 

 readers would number 107,257, or considerably more than the population 

 of the Borough. So far, the experiment is an entire success, and the 



