Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/112

ioo The Library. of the land. The recent action of Parliament in establishing Parish Councils, is a long step in the right direction, which is likely in a brief space of time to lead to a great quickening of the rural life of England. These Parish Councils are armed with certain powers, among them being the adoption of the " Public Libraries Act, 1892," by vote of the parish meeting, enabling them to institute, among other things, libraries and reading-rooms, which are justly regarded as the agencies most likely to give zest and variety to the monotonous round of ordinary country life. Unfortunately, the powers conferred are insufficient for the proper discharge of the purpose, and we are confronted with the anomaly of local authorities furnished with leave to execute important public work with means which are ridiculously inadequate in probably more than three-fourths of the parishes of England. The rate of one penny in the pound on the rateable value of an ordinary rural parish will not realise an income sufficient to do more than mock the efforts of the Parish Council to establish a library large enough and good enough to satisfy public requirements, and we are certain that unless additional powers are conferred, the provision affecting the formation of libraries by the adoptive powers given, will practically remain a dead letter, save in a very few exceptional cases. This brings us to the main point of the whole question, and to the conclusion, formed after much study, that the village or parish is not the proper unit to adopt for the organisation of a system of libraries in the rural districts. The income of the average parish which can be appropriated for the purpose is utterly inadequate, and anything that may result from attempts to form libraries with such scanty means, is certain to prove un- satisfactory in the long run. Take for example the county of Dumfries, in the south of Scotland, which is both topographically and in regard to the distribution of population, a fairly typical case. The rateable value of the whole county, excluding seven towns, which are separately governed, is about ^"500,000, after making an allowance for losses likely to arise from various causes. The product of a penny rate on this sum is about ^"2,000, without making much deduction on account of pasture lands, which are not subject to the full rating. But, in order to give the most favourable conditions to the proposed plan of adopting the village or parish as the unit for organisation rather than the county, we will assume that the library rate does