176 [Proc. B. N. F. C, 



for Liverpool, they might at any rate be actuated by the 

 same spirit, and do something. The annual income from the 

 penny rate would be about :^2,300, which would be sufficient 

 to maintain the institution, but for the provision of a suitable 

 building, books, &c., a sum of ;^2 5,000 would be required. An 

 effort must be made to raise by subscription the whole or 

 greater part of the cost of the building, so as to secure a suffi- 

 cient sum for maintenance. They must follow the example of 

 other towns, and provide an institution worthy of Belfast — 

 broad in its conception, generous in its provision, and free to 

 all who wished to partake of its advantages ; and when the 

 ring of the hammer and the trowel was heard along new 

 avenues of traffic, and new centres of enterprise arose on every 

 hand, let them also determine that provision for intellectual 

 progress should keep pace with the increased evidence of 

 national prosperity. 



The Chairman remarked that Mr. Gray had brought the 

 subject before them in an admirable manner. In fact, Mr. Gray 

 might be regarded as the apostle of the movement, and it was 

 to his indomitable energy that they were now in the pleasing 

 position of having adopted the Free Libraries Act. 



Mr. F. D. Ward, J.P., said it had afforded him very great 

 pleasure indeed to receive the information with which they had 

 been favoured that evening by Mr. Gray. No persons in the 

 town, he believed, were more surprised at the result of the vote 

 for the adoption of the Public Libraries Act than the members 

 of the Town Council themselves. It occurred to him that in 

 the town of Belfast they wanted another thing. They had not 

 in Belfast, in his opinion, a Town Hall or Municipal Buildings 

 that were at all worthy of a town of the importance of Belfast ; 

 and, if he might be permitted to make a suggestion, he would 

 respectfully propose that the Town Council should set about 

 building a proper Town Hall — a building that would be a credit 

 to the borough — and having done that, he would suggest that 

 the present Municipal Buildings, as they stood, might with 

 very great advantage be turned into a library, museum, and, 

 in fact, what Mr. Gray had pointed out. 



