Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/413

Constitution of Colonial Public Libraries. 401 Institute, which was established in 1851, which is now known as the Natal Society. It is managed by a committee and has a reading-room attached, which is open to the public every day from 9.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. It contains 8,500 volumes, and last year had a daily attendance of 300 persons, and an annual issue of 22,995 volumes, and 14,366 magazines. It is supported by private subscriptions and a Government as well as a Corporation grant. In Durban, the chief seaport of the Colony, there is a public library supported in a similar manner to the Natal Society, but receiving a larger Government grant, viz., 100 a year. There are also ten smaller institutions scattered through- out the Colony, which are supported by private subscriptions and Government grants ranging from 10 to ^"50, but in no instance can Natal compare, as regards its literary institutions, with those of the Cape Colony. West Indies. In the West Indies the Public Library move- ment has been taken up with very little spirit, no doubt to some extent attributable to the depressed state of the sugar market during recent years. But there are exceptions, and in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and the Bahamas, are to be found institu- tions which supply in an admirable manner the wants of the public as regards current literature, although not Public Libraries in the strict sense of the word. In Jamaica the Public Library is attached to the Institute of Jamaica, which was constituted during the governorship of Sir Anthony Musgrave, by Law 22 of 1879, which created a Board, styled the Board of Governors of the Institute of Jamaica, consisting of seven members (increased by Law 34 of 1889 to eleven) appointed by the Governor, their duties being to establish and maintain an institution comprising a Library, Reading Room and Museum. This law transferred to the Institute the Libraries of the House of Assembly and the old Legislative Council, both of which ceased to exist in the year 1866, together with a suitable building. The Library, which provides a Public Reading Room, is supported by a Govern- ment grant and private subscriptions, and contains about 9,000 volumes of scientific, historic, and general literature, in addition to a special collection of works on Jamaica and the West Indies generally. The Library is open every weekday from n a.m. to 9 p.m. With a view to enabling those at a distance from King- ston to participate in the use of the Library, various branches have from time to time been formed, but of these only one that of Lucea is now in existence, and to it are sent such books as can be allowed to leave the Library.