intimation was given that public service would commence at the same place each Sunday at 11 a.m. The associations connecting the building and its designed purpose with that to which it was thus appropriated, do not appear very congruous, but in those early days people were obliged to put up with strange bedfellows and not be over nice in many particulars. The building was tenantless as a prison.
The library too was prosperous. The books, although not numerous, were select, each one worthy of a place, and so as to facilitate their distribution, the plan was adopted of sending monthly selections to the more remote settlers, who were thus saved the toil and expense of a weekly journey into town. Popular lectures were also instituted, most of the shining lights contributing their quota to the general diffusion of knowledge. And in addition to local talent, more experienced colonists (among others Mr, now Sir William, Fox and Mr. J. E. Wakefield) were introduced from the north to illume somewhat the obscurity of the future.
For the proper arranging of these lectures, it was necessary that some particular body should be liable, and naturally and properly it fell to the lot of the Mechanics' Institute to come to the front. This Institution, which had an early start in the community, was steadily growing in importance and influence, and was able, by voluntary subscriptions, to erect a hall where the Cargill Monument now stands, which in its day did good service in different directions. The building itself had wooden walls and shingle roof, and in design was of Doric architecture, the size being forty feet square, and its holding capacity about two hundred. Used at first as a lecture and reading-room, it was subsequently utilized for holding the meetings of the Provincial Council, Law Courts, public meetings, and Town Board. Afterwards used as the location of the branch of the Oriental Bank; then as the chambers of a firm of solicitors, both members of which now occupy seats on the Bench in our supreme judicature; next transformed into a meat market; it was at length swept away to make room for other requirements.
Lighter entertainments were also provided to relieve the tedium and monotomy of existence. Occasionally concerts were got up, and in the absence of professional performers, volunteers
