[ xi ] 



to counect this country with the neighbouring island of Tasmania) might have 

 been received ere this but for the disasters which befel that vessel. 



Money has been remitted to England for the purchase of 6,000 volumes, 

 which may rea#h this country before the close of the year. 5,000 is at the 

 disposal of the Trustees for further purchases, which may swell the number to 

 upwards of 25,000 volumes, and had it not been for the pressure on the public 

 revenue which caused the lapse of the sums of 3,000 for 1854, and 3,000 for 

 1855, voted for the purchase of books, that number might at this moment have 

 been in the possession of the Trustees. 



The selection has been governed by strict attention to principles which 

 will secure the standard publications in the different departments of history 

 and literature, the most approved works on all the important branches of natural 

 and applied science, and the best illustrations of the celebrated productions 

 of Art. 



It has been observed that a prevailing anxiety exists that the collection 

 should be largely enriched with works of the highest order in science and the 

 practical arts ; a desire with which the Trustees make it a study to comply. 



The portion of the new building, now ready for the reception of visitors, 

 consists of a room 95 feet long, by 50 feet wide, and 32 feet high, joined to 

 the former 50 feet by 50 feet of equal height, giving a Reading-Room of 145 

 feet in length. Further accommodation is to be found in the well-lighted 

 galleries which run along each side and across one end, and the disposition of 

 the book-cases, different from that which obtains in the outer chamber, will 

 admit of a systematic classification and numbering of the books, at once 

 convenient to the individual, by leading him to the subject of his study, and 

 to the visitors generally, by diffusing them through the rooms. It will much 

 facilitate the superintendence of the Librarian and his assistants, and improve the 

 comfort of the Readers. 



The lower story, which is not yet finished, is well adapted for the purpose for 

 which it was designed, namely for exhibiting Statuary and other works of Art. 



The whole of the sum of 20,000, voted for the erection of this Wing, 

 has been laid out ; and the addition shows the propriety of the adoption by 

 the Trustees of the Plan of the architect, Mr. Reed, which combines internal 

 convenience with external purity of style, and admits of enlargement without 

 violating the proportions of the other parts of the structure. 



But the labors of the Trustees have not been confined to furnishing means 

 of exclusive gratification for the residents in the capital. It has been deemed 

 highly important to spread abroad, as widely as possible, the beneficial influences 

 happily brought into being, of which those who live at a distance are unable 

 to partake ; and thus, without impairing the resources of the Institution as a 

 Library of deposit and research, to increase the facilities for general literary 

 improvement, and for the expansion of the public mind. 



To accomplish this object, it is proposed to lend to the Mechanics' and 

 other similar Institutions in the provincial towns, a certain number of duplicate 



