ny in the pound, thereby providing 937 pounds : 10 : 0 for the
year, since which time the full library rate has always been levied. Mr.
F. W. Harmer took a prominent part in securing the increase in the
library rate. He pointed out that to spend the product of a halfpenny
rate on the plea of economy was really the reverse of economical, as it
just sufficed to pay standing charges, leaving little or nothing for the
purchase of books.

The annual report for the year ending March 25th, 1888, is interesting as
it records that the great burden of the debt on the building had been
cleared off, and briefly reviews the work of the Library after ten years'
service of the Librarian, as follows:

"The present Librarian was appointed in 1877, starting with a stock
of 3,500 books in the Lending Department and almost none in the
Reference Department; whereas the present stock consists of 11,500
for Lending and 5,000 for Reference purposes, about 1,200 of the
latter, with 1,650 pamphlets, pictures, &c., being of a local
character and purchased with fines imposed for detaining books beyond
the time allowed for reading.

"The number of borrowers in 1877 was 1,540, whereas the number in
1887 was 3,550; the number of issues of books in the same period
increasing from 27,000 to 77,000--about 10,000 of the population of
the city over 14 years of age having taken advantage of the boon
afforded by this department."

The report draws attention to an increase in the hours of the lending
library, which hitherto had been 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m., to 11
a.m. till 9 p.m. every week-day except Thursday.

The establishment of a juvenile department as a means of stimulating
interest in the Library was one of the first suggestions made by Mr.
Easter after his appointment, and although the Committee did not
entertain it then he did not abandon it, and the subject was raised in
the press and in Committee in 1885. As a result the Mayor, Mr. John
Gurney, who was keenly interested in the proposal, offered to give 100
pounds on condition that an additional 150 pounds was raised, but he died
before the establishment of the scheme. The Chairman of the School
Board, Mr. (afterwards Sir) George White, who was a member of the
Committee, promised to raise the matter at a School Board Meeting, but
the scheme, to be financed by public subscription, did not come to
fruition until 1889. In that year th