617 



in Adelaide, after various misadventures, in a somewhat 

 damaged condition. 



According to a statement made by Charles Mann, the 

 pressure of employment, incident upon the earlier stages of 

 immigration, prevented any further meetings of the Associa- 

 tion in the new Colony. 



It so happened that in 1838, there became established at 

 the "Rooms of the South Australian School Society," in this 

 city, ''The Adelaide Mechanics' Institution," under the 

 presidency of James Hurtle Fisher, at that time Resident 

 Commissioner and Registrar. The aims of this body were the 

 delivery of evening lectures, together with the control of a 

 reading room and circulating library of some 300 books. 

 Unfortunately it did not receive the support it had anticipated, 

 and in less than a year it was in dire difficulties, unable to 

 meet its obligations, and consequently in danger of having 

 its books sold by public auction. At this critical period of its 

 history, the trustees of the South Australian Literary and 

 Scientific Association came to its rescue with an offer of 

 amalgamation. The offer was accepted. The latter associa- 

 tion was dissolved and its library was handed over in trust to 

 the new body, which now bore the cumbrous title of ''The 

 Adelaide Literary and Scientific Association and Mechanics' 

 Institute." 



But these were not healthy days for the survival of such 

 societies, and in turn the new venture faded away, rather than 

 dissolved. It finally became extinct in 1844. By some means, 

 the books which had been brought from England, were 

 deposited with Mr. Da Costa to cover a debt of £20, and were 

 still in his hands when yet another organization appeared. 



This was the "South Australian Subscription Library," 

 which was founded in the year just mentioned. Charles Mann, 

 in his evidence before the General Committee of the Adelaide 

 Library and Mechanics' Institute some years later, says that 

 he and some of his co-trustees of the early London association 

 paid the debt due to Da Costa and presented the books to the 

 South Australian Subscription Library, "of which they 

 formed the nucleus." In order that they might not be subject 

 to any risk consequent upon a dissolution of the society, it 

 was stipulated that in such an event they should become 

 public property and b© vested in three of the principal officers 

 of the Colony. 



The Adelaide Subscription Library was modelled on the 

 lines of some of the best English institutions. Its subscription 

 was high and its membership exclusive. It was unsuitable for 

 a young colony where the population was small and the number 



