a oth Feb. Tu report of the Shanghai Libr which we publish this morning should be a satisfactory one to the members, who are to be congratulated not only on having such good librarians, and it will be seen that the committee take sense of the efficient and courteous the opportunity of expressing their
manner in which.Mr. and Mrs. Gale's duties have been performed, but also on the good fortune which has given them a succession of honorary secretaries, who have taken so. keen an interest in keeping the institution up to the mark. A library of over 10,000 volumes to which every year the best new books, and a large number of novels, in the English language are added, is a very respectable showing for a small town, gue the number of foreign inhabitants, like Shanghai; and we are glad to see that the income about balances the expenditure, balance of is. 182.56 being in hand at the beginning of 1890, and a balance of Tls. 178.83 carried forward at the end of the year, to which a farther sum of fs. 50 has to be added, collected since j the balance-sheet was prepared. As to the aim of the Library, we learn that "the committee have kept steadily in view the importance of establishing a full library of reference, while they have at the same time taken care to meet the popular demand for light and general literature." Although the Library is a private institution, the committee have voluntarily undertaken a kind of responsibility towards the public. Itis the only complete library in Shanghai, the only place where a magazine of books can be found, as distinct from the stock of current litera~ ture to which the members of the Shanghai Club have access; and thus there is a moral obligation on the Committee as good citizens to make and keep it complete and reliable, which they have carefully done.
The Municipal Council some years of ove hundred taels, and this sum has zo made the Shanghai Library a grant
since been granted to it annually. The consideration was that its reading-room and the use of its books should be free to the public—to read on the premises, not to take away—and for this purpose the Library is open daily frow 9 a.m. to 12 noon, and from 4 to7 pin. We find it stated in the report that "the increasing number of daily visitors attests how wuch this privilege is appre~ ciated." It would not have been amiss if figures could have been given in the report to show what the number of visitors using the Library, by virtue of this arrangement with the Council, was. Such figures, if given, would doubtless have drawn increased attention to the long paragraph which concludes the present report. "'T'he Committee have always desired to carry out the laudable intentions of the Council"—in making their grant of Tls. 100 a year—"as effectively as possible, and they would be glad to give still greater facilities to visitors, by transferring the library to a central position in one of the leading thoroughfares, but the contribution now made by the Council is quite inadequate to defray the increased expenditure which would be consequently incurred, not so much in the interest of subscribers, as of the general public." The Committee go on to suggest that until a public Free Library is established, the ratepayers might well be disposed to aid the Shanghai Library to get amore accessible home. When the time comes for the establishment of a Free Library, the collection of the Shanghai Library will be the nucleus of the institution, and a great labour will thus be lifted off the shoulders of those who are charged with the starting of the Municipal Library, so that it shall be "worthy of the settlement and in keeping with the enterprise and culture of its citizens."
Pheouly form of public luxury to which the ratepayers as such contribute largely at the present time is music; and it may well be argued that open-air music is as much a necessary here in the summer as a luxury: it is incalculable how much the performances of the town band in the public garden contribute to the health and comfort of foreigners in Shanghai. But we have been singularly remiss so far in contributing to educational, literary, and scientific objects, We are at no expense whatever for the observatory with its dependent tine-ball; we have not even a public clock, nor do we see any provision for one in the plans of the magnificent building which it is now proposed to erect for the police. Our contributions to schools are very meagre, and a public school for boys and girls, in which the excellent school instituted by the Masonic body should be absorbed, is one of the most pressing needs of the community. The Council, too, should soon consider the rey, of starting a Municipal School for, Chinese, in imitation of the excellent institution carried on by the French Council; it really seems a pity that so much care should be expended in teaching hundreds of young Chinese the French language, when English is so emphatically the, language of the Bast, if not of the world But if our contributions to schools are meagre, the assistance we give to the library and the museum, institutions of undoubted value to us all both for education and recreation, is _pitiably small. We might have taken example from Tientsin, if the model settlement could humble itself to taking a lesson from an outport, and included room fur a public library in the police palace to which we have already alluded—it is not too late to do it yet. A public library is as much a necessary in a civilised town as a supply of water or of light; the want is met at present by the grant of is. 100 a year to the Shanghai Library, but this is only a temporary expedient, and it should' be soon more fully supplied. It is a great advantage that when the Council take it in hand, they may rely, as the report we are considering assures us, on the willing ce-operation of the committee of the Shanghai Library, and if the committee, failing spontaneous action on the part of the Council, bring forward a resolution looking towards the institution of a free library, at the forthcoming ratepayers' meeting, they may rely, we think, on getting the support of all actual or potential lovers of books,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.