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PUBLIC LIBRARY
SYSTEMS.
BY
B. L. DYER.
KIMBERLEY.
1903.
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEMS
OF GREAT BRITAIN, AMERICA
AND SOUTH AFRICA.
ascitt
BY
BERTRAM L. DYER, LIBRARIAN
OF KIMBERLEY, HON. MEMBER
OF THE L.A.A.; MEMBER OF
THE S.A.A.A.S.; S.A.; &c., &c.
And yet . . . Ideals do exist.”
CARLYLE.
KIMBERLEY, S.A.
1903.
CAPE TOWN :
TOWNSHEND, TAYLOR AND SNASHALL, PRINTers.
1903.
заз вожно
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF
ALEXANDER J. JARDINE,
LIBRARIAN OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LIBRARY, 1824—41,
AND OF
THE GOVERNOR
WHO, WISER THAN HIS GENERATION, ISSUED
THE PROCLAMATION OF 1818,
LORD CHARLES SOMERSET.
"My own hope is, a sun will pierce
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched,
That, after Last, returns the First,
Though a wide compass round be fetched;
That what began best, can't end worst,
Nov what God blessed once, prove accurst.”
?
R. BROWNING
200029
NOTE
Written at the suggestion of Mr. Theodore Reunert,
M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E., of the South African Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, to be read at
the first Congress of that Society, these hastily compiled
notes have been so kindly received that I am emboldened
to accede to the representations of many friends, and
issue them, with all their imperfections thick upon them,
to a wider circle than perchance may be reached by the
"Transactions" of the S.A.A.A.S.
Of the hastiness of the attempted survey, within the
limitations of one paper, of so large a subject, I am fully
conscious, but I shall have attained my object if I have
attracted toward the Libraries of South Africa those
capable and willing to aid their development, and who
can worthily deal with a subject of such vast import-
ance.
To the many friends who have encouraged me in the
preparation of this paper, and to the numerous critics
whose observations have to some extent been added-
where they were not destructive rather than constructive-
I have again to express my gratitude.
BERTRAM L. Dyer.
24, Woodley Street, Kimberley, S.A.
PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEMS,
"What a sad want I am in of libraries, of books to gather
facts from! Why is there not a Majesty's Library in every
county town? There is a Majesty's gaol and a gallows in
every one!"
When we realise that these words were those of
Thomas Carlyle only some seventy years since * we are
vividly reminded how young and how recent a thing is
the Public Library as we know it in Great Britain, in
America, and in South Africa.
Yet who, in these early days of the twentieth century,
would venture to suggest that Public Libraries do not
come within the category of things which it is absolutely
necessary that a wise government should cause to be
provided by the collective action of the community it
rules over.
movement
It has been claimed that the modern Public Library
was started in America-that England
caught the infection, and that thence it extended over
the world.
But the claim is very largely a fallacious one, and
however much may have been done by America to ex-
tend and develop the work of Libraries, there is no
gainsaying the fact that there exist at this moment on
the continent of Europe, Public Libraries, maintained
by public funds and by private benefactions, which have
been in existence for centuries-while with one excep-
tion in London, one in Manchester, and possibly two in
America, there exist no modern English Public Librar-
ies that can claim an antiquity of more than one
hundred years.
* In Froude's Thomas Carlyle 1795-1835, Vol. 2, p. 281, Extract
from Journal, also referred to at Vol. 1, p. 151 of the same
author's Thomas Carlyle 1834-81.
America claims that when New Hampshire placed on
its statute book in 1849 a provision for the upkeep of its
Public Libraries by a tax, that this was the first occasion
of the provision of a Public Library from public funds-
other than the establishment of royal Libraries. But
so far back as 1818 Cape Colony had established a
Public Library whose funds were derived from a tax
upon its then principal product. In the words of the
proclamation, the design of the government of the
Cape was "to lay the foundation of a system which shall
place the means of knowledge within the reach of the
youth of this remote corner of the globe, and bring
within their reach what the most eloquent of ancient
writers has considered to be one of the first blessings of
life-Home Education." *
This public spirited ordinance, made as it was in the
first quarter of the Nineteenth Century, is the first
instance of a public provision for Libraries in any
English-speaking dominion, and entitles Cape Colony to
rank as the pioneer of state-supported Public Libraries,
though the wine tax was diverted to the general funds
of the Colony in 1825, and a pittance of £300 per annum.
paid out of it for a couple of years, until in 1827 the tax
was repealed, and the Library handed over to a Com-
mittee, thus ceasing in effect to be a Public Library
under state control. Not till 1862 did the Government
of the Cape again contribute toward the upkeep of the
Library, but in that year the sum of £600 was granted
toward its maintenance, and grants have been made.
ever since.
By private benefactions it is true there were older
English Public Libraries-that of London, for instance,
* I have sought in vain the passage of "the most eloquent of ancient
writers" alluded to, though one is reminded of several passages in
Quintillian, and of Marcus Aurelius and his "thanks to my great
grandfather I did not attend public lectures, but was supplied with
good masters at home, and learned that in such matters free outlay
is not extravagance ; " and also of Pliny the Younger who says
"Children should be brought up where they are born and should
accustom themselves from earliest infancy to love their native soil
and make it their home,"
9
being founded in the Fifteenth Century, but this had
disappeared entirely by the Seventeenth. The Library
of New York in America too had been founded in the
last year of the Seventeenth Century, but it may be said
to have remained utterly neglected till, in 1754, the efforts
of Benjamin Franklin (commenced in 1731) founded the
Library Society of Philadelphia *-to be, as he says in
his "Autobiography" "The Mother of all the North
American Subscription Libraries now so numerous.
These Libraries have improved the general conversation
of Americans, have made the common tradesmen and
farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen in other
countries" and-we may add-
add- have continued to
prosper to the present day, receiving large benefactions.
by gift and by bequest, and frequently being largely
subsidised by public funds.
In 1761-within seven years of Franklin's foundation
of the Philadelphia institution, Cape Town and London
both received donations of books, which curiously
enough were both handed over to churches until the
Community should claim them for a Public Library. It
is interesting to note that Cape Town had claimed its
Dessinian books from the hands of the Consistory of the
Dutch Reformed Church and had housed them in its
Public Library in the first quarter of last Century, but
it was almost at the end of the last quarter of that Cen-
tury that Shoreditch claimed from the Churchwardens
* Commemorated on the present building thus :—
"Be it remembered
in honour of the Philadelphia youth
(then chiefly artificers)
that in MDCCXXXI
they cheerfully
at the instance of Benjamin Franklin,
one of their number
instituted the Philadelphia Library,
which, though small at first,
is become highly valuable, and extensively useful,
and which the walls of this Edifice
are now destined to contain and preserve,
the first stone of whose foundation
was here placed
the 31st day of August 1789.
Vor M
10
of St. Leonard its heritage of the Dawson books! Cape
Town had her Library six years before the Corporation
of London took steps to refound her Guildhall Library,
and nearly half a Century before the sister city of West-
minster permitted the Trustees of the Tenison Trust to
sell by public auction the books that Archbishop had
willed to his foundation at St. Martin in the Fields.
In England there were Subscription Libraries in the
Eighteenth Century, which, if we may believe the
evidence of Sheridan, circulated little but fiction, but
they do not appear to have flourished. Some of thein
have been able to continue to modern days without
absorption into more useful institutions, but the majority
have disappeared. The same is true of Scotland and of
Ireland, and few of the older Libraries there have deve-
loped on the lines that similar institutions have done in
America. Birmingham affords, however,
successful instance of the growth of a subscription
Library, and its development alongside and within near
reach of one of the most successful of the Free Town
Libraries established under the Ewart Acts.
а most
Early subscription Libraries there were in Cape
Colony beside that of Cape Town taken over from the
state about 1830, for Swellendam established her Library
in 1838, George hers in 1840, and Graaff-Reinet hers in
1847.*
There is an amusing passage in a letter of
Molteno's which he addressed to his mother in London
in 1844, which forms a curious commentary on the
Library facilities enjoyed by the metropolis of England
and that of Cape Colony. He writes:-
* The following account of an attempt to start a library at Graaff-
Reinet in 1822 is taken from the Autobiography of Sir Andries
Stockenstroom (Cape Town 1887. Vol. 1, p. 207.)
"A public library was also attempted. Rees's Cyclopaedia with
other books of reference, and a number of standard works, as also
lighter reading. to the amount of several hundred volumes, were
placed in a spare room in the public offices, accessible to every
decently dressed person. Mr. Daniel Mills, a respectable literary
gentleman, far advanced in years.... having nothing to do, and
being fond of books was glad to become Librarian. His income
was of course miserably small, and as he saw better prospects in
Cape Town he proceeded thither with his family. The Library
for want of readers was shut up."
Mnou
11
"I much wish you could obtain a proper account of the Cape,
perhaps you may be able to get the loan of a recent work, there
are several. If you were so fortunate as we are at the Cape in
having a Public Library of 30,000 volumes to resort to, you
would experience no difficulty in this respect."
To realise the utter dearth of Public Libraries in
Great Britain in 1849 one has only to turn to Hansard
and read the speeches of Mr. Ewart and Mr. Bretherton
in the House of Commons, both in moving for the
appointment of the Select Committee and in introducing
the first Library Bill. The Report of the Select Com-
mittee is one of the most remarkable documents in the
history of popular education-and the following passage
deserves quotation. Dealing with Public Libraries on
the Continent of Europe "it may generally be stated
that admission is granted unreservedly to the poor as to
the rich, to the foreigner as to the native. We have
only one Library equally accessible in Great Britain
with these numerous Libraries abroad. Nor is this
contrast displayed by the European Continent alone.
Our younger brethren--the people of the United States
of America-have already anticipated us in the formation.
of Libraries
. entirely open to the public. Your
Committee feel convinced that the people of a country
like our own, abounding in capital, in energy, and in an
honest desire not only to initiate but to imitate whatso-
ever is good or useful, will not linger long behind the
people of other countries in the acquisition of such valu-
able institutions as freely accessible Libraries. Our
present inferior position is unworthy of the power, the
liberality, and the literature of the country."
By one year New Hampshire had ante-dated this
measure, and Massachusetts followed with her Library
Law in 1851, but it should be stated that Peterborough
in New Hampshire had established her Library out of
public funds in 1833 and Warrington in England hers in
1848, though such expenditures were perhaps hardly
lawful till the Library Acts were passed.
In 1862, Cape Colony, as we have seen, again provided
public funds for her Cape Town Library, and on the
31st August, 1874, an ordinance was published, giving
12
the regulations under which public funds would be
granted to Libraries throughout the Colony on the pound
for pound principle.
Natal in 1851 founded her first Library and at the
present time has a somewhat similar system of grants in
aid-a system which has very recently been adopted by
the governments of the Orange River and Transvaal
Colonies.
Having thus attempted a summary of the history of
the Library movement in the three countries, I now
proceed to a comparison of the general conditions at
present existing, prefacing this however with the explan-
ation that my acquaintance with the systems is of such
a character that it is impossible for me to speak author-
itatively upon them, and that my conclusions have been
arrived at tentatively after a residence of little more than
two years in South Africa, nearly the whole of which
time has been passed in one town.
The Library law of Great Britain as amended to date
leaves it optional to the inhabitants of an area to rate
themselves to the extent of one penny in the pound on
the annual valuation, and this sum may not be exceded
without the special sanction of Parliament. Very few
towns have sought and obtained such permission,
though there is a very general feeling that the limited
rate is inadequate.
Once adopted the Acts cannot be dropped again easily.
The control is vested in the local authority who gener-
ally appoint a Committee from among themselves, and
from that class of educated residents which is not always
attracted to municipal work. The Committee vary
largely in number, from about ten to nearly fifty, and
apart from financial supervision, the local authority
rarely interferes with the Committee in its work. There
is no grant from central government funds, and no
government inspection or supervision.
In America the Library Committee is nominated by
the Government or elected by the subscribers-it usually
consists of from three to nine members. It is state-
controlled, there is government inspection, and frequently
a State Library Commission attempts to ensure the
13
adoption of systematic work on general lines of unity.
Frequently the Education Board of a State controls its
Libraries.
In South Africa the subscribers elect the Committee,
generally twelve in number, while there are usually
trustees representing the municipality and the govern-
ment, and there is a government inspection of accounts. *
There are 403 Libraries in the United Kingdom
deriving their main income from Library rates. Of
these 336 are in England, 15 in Wales, 15 in Ireland
and 37 in Scotland. There are about 100 subscription
or semi-public Libraries in addition.
In the United States of America there are upwards of
1,200 tax-supported Libraries and at least 1,000 Libraries
supported in other ways. The Northern States have
far more and far better Libraries than the Southern-
and the distribution of Libraries is far from uniform.
Massachusetts leads the way and this State alone has in
her Public Libraries 33 millions of books as against 5
millions in all the Public Libraries of England.
Cape Colony in 1900 had nine large Libraries in her
principal towns receiving special grants and about 100
receiving pound for pound grants. The total number of
books in all the Libraries in the Colony is not half a
million. Natal has 20 Libraries- or rather she had,
because one was unfortunately destroyed in the late
war; and at this date it is impossibly to present any data
as to the state of the Libraries of the Orange River and
Transvaal Colonies.
Private donations have not very largely helped the
Library movement in England. The reverse is the
case in Scotland, and of course American citizens have
nobly helped the cause in their own country. In
Massachusetts which can claim indeed to be "the
banner State" no less than 120 libraries have been built
at a cost of 1 millions of money, and, if we exclude the
recent gifts of Mr. Carnegie, there do not appear to have
been 50 Libraries given to the whole of Great Britain.
* About 1890 the Librarian of Cape Town visited the Libraries of
Cape Colony and presented a Report upon them, upon which
certain new regulations were based.-See Appendix A.
14
Gifts of Libraries to South Africa are hard to find-
though the noble bequests and gifts of the Savage family
to Port Elizabeth deserve special mention. But apart
from the Dessinian bequest to Cape Town, the gift of Sir
George Grey also to Cape Town, the gift of £1,000 by Mr.
Hiddingh and certain legacies also to Cape Town,
the Gibberd gift of £1,000 to East London, and
the MacFarlane gift of £500 to Kimberley I am unable
to trace any others, except one considerable bequest
to Grahamstown, whose Library also received the
balance of a Kafir War Fund that now produces some
£140 annually. The Victoria Memorial Library at
Salisbury, Rhodesia, and the Scott Turner Library at
Umtata should perhaps be mentioned here also. But
what are these funds and gifts compared with the
£13,000 voluntarily subscribed by the people of Manches-
ter in 1851 to establish their own Library?
The Cape Government has made special grants in
aid of the building of Libraries, but in Great Britain the
usual way that a Library has been built has been
by mortgaging the future income of the rate. America
helps in many ways. One State gives grants,
another gives gives books, yet another hands over part
of the State lands, and in addition to the money raised
by local taxation many States hand over other revenues
to the Library Boards. One hands over the dog-tax,
another the fines from the magistrates' courts, and one
State in particular pays a sum for each book circulated.
To compare the amount of money devoted to Libraries
in the three countries is very difficult owing to the
different methods of rating, taxing and granting adopted.
But I would point out that while Birmingham, a
city of 429,000 inhabitants devotes only £14,437 to
Libraries, Boston with 448,000 inhabitants devotes.
£51,562. Taking other towns of equal size on the
two sides of the herring pond, Newcastle-on-Tyne
devotes only £4,331, while Newark and Minneapolis
devote £8,043 and 14,231! Aberdeen spends only
£2,248, Oldham £2,155, Blackburn £1,959, Bolton
£1,908, Sunderland £1,031-yet New Haven with its
smaller population spends £3,712! The total Library
15
expenditure of Great Britain is less than £210,000, while
the two cities of Boston and Chicago alone spend half of
that sum between them!
Turning to South Africa the total amount paid out of
the general revenues of Cape Colony in 1899-1900 was
£9,000 as against £10,752 in the previous year! The
total number of persons subscribing was 9,438 and the
total number of books only 421,731. Natal only paid
from her revenue £1,952, and the total number of
volumes in the Colony was under 50,000, while she had
3,073 subscribers!
Recently I tried to test the work that we were doing
in Kimberley by comparing it with that which was being
done by equal-sized Public Libraries at home. There
are, I found, twenty Libraries in Great Britain of
between 25,000 and 40,000 volumes, and they are
variously situate. They vary from Norwich founded in
1850 and St. Helens founded in 1869, to Carlisle founded
in 1890 and Shoreditch founded in its present form in 1891.
The population varies from 365,000 at Belfast and 122,000
at Shoreditch to 30,000 at Richmond and 39,000 at
Carlisle and the annual expenditure varies from £4,280
at Belfast and £3,580 at Hampstead to £800 at Darlington
and £870 at Yarmouth-but, taking the average, I found
that a population of 84,000 persons had a Library income
of £1,812, a stock of 28,000 books, and issued 73 per
cent. of fiction out of a total annual issue of 136,000
books. Kimberley with its population of 15,000 whites
spent last year upwards of £2,000 on its Library,
possessed 26,000 books and issued 75 per cent. of fiction
out of a total of 40,000. If you reduce these figures to
the average per unit of the population you find that
Kimberley spent 2s. 11d. per head on the Library while
the average for the twenty home Libraries was only 5d.
per head. Looking at the towns separately we find
Birmingham does not spend gd. per head, while Aberdeen
spends less than 6d. per head-yet if we turn to America
we find Boston spending 3s. per head and other towns
considerably more.
But what Boston spends annually on her Library per
head of her population is found by the government, and
16
we must compare her 3s. with only 7'2d. of our 25. 11d.
in Kimberley, for the Cape Government only gives us
5'6d. and our Municipality only 1.6d., our local sub-
scribers paying in themselves for the privilege of using
the Library a sum equal to 12.7 per head of the whole
population of the town, while our donations from the
De Beers Company have equalled 4d. per head of the
population in every recent year!
Equally remarkable is the number of books read in
Kimberley if you consider that we have no leisured
community there, but that we are mostly people engaged
in hard and laborious work all day, for last year we
issued 2 books to each unit of our population as com-
pared with only 1 books per head in the average of the
twenty towns with Libraries on the whole rather larger
than ours.
With regard to taxation American and South African
Libraries are practically exempt, * but most British
Libraries pay both local and imperial taxes.
Art galleries and Museums are frequently attached to
Libraries in England-in America there is a great dearth
of museums and of art galleries. Cape Colony possesses
only five and Natal two! It would be well if the
recognition by Great Britain of the educational function
of Library Boards by giving them the charge of
museums and art galleries were copied in South Africa.
Turning to the Libraries themselves we find that in
America the Reference departments are small-the books
are nearly all available for home reading. In England
the reverse is the case, the Reference being frequently
larger than the Lending department. In South Africa
we frequently adopt the happy medium by putting our
* The exemption of the Libraries of Cape Colony from taxation was
gained by the action of Kimberley, at the instigation of the Hon.
Mr. Justice Laurence. So also was the Cape Colony concession
that parcels of not less than 25 lbs. in weight may be carried on
the C.G.R. to and from libraries at third class rates. But com-
pare this concession with that of America whose authorities
permit all books to and from libraries to travel at the low postal
rate of one cent per pound. Of what incalculable value would
not such a concession be to the isolated country residents of Cape
Colony to whom the 25 lbs. concession is practically useless!
17
books in the Reference section and permitting their
issue on special signature form. The use made of the
Reference departments is difficult to show in comparison
because it is most unusual in South Africa to keep
records of consultations in this department, but it is
noteworthy that Manchester, which has only a third of
the population of Chicago, has three times as many
readers in its Reference Library!
The popular tendency to be impressed by big figures.
such as this does not always tend to the realisation of
the highest ideals in Library work, and if England's
highest record is in her reference work, America
achieves a wonderful record by her home circulation of
books. And we must never forget in comparing British
Libraries and American Libraries with those of South
Africa that both the former reckon their Reference issues
with their lending in working out the average of fiction.
read, and that Library statistics unless subjected to the
most careful test are very often misleading. In one
state of America, where the amount of the Government
grant is based on the issue, the result has been to excite
a feverish desire to increase the issue alike by Library
Boards and staffs, and while the Library Board would
only buy such books as were good "circulators" without
consideration whether such books were of real value to
the community, the Library staff insisted on every
unfortunate user of that Library taking out each time
he or she visited it two books-one of which might not
be fiction--despite reluctance or protest—and all
because of the statistics."
Where the American Library system does score, and
score well, is by the admirable system of delivery stations
that exists in nearly every town of any size -- which
literally serve to bring books to the doors of the people.
By the provision of books for schools, fire-stations, light-
houses, factories, &c., and by her prompt recall of books
America leads the way in Library work. She gives
special facilities to her school-teachers to borrow books
in big batches to illustrate lectures and courses of study,
and she turns her every teacher into a Library evangel
2
18
and her every schoolroom into a preparation ground of
future Library readers.
School Libraries in connection with the larger Public
Libraries are not uncommon in Great Britain-Notting-
ham early led the way, Cardiff followed, and few or no
Libraries have not a juvenile section or a children's
room. Out here they are hardly known, but the
magnificent provision which the Cape Education Depart-
ment makes for the encouragement of Libraries in its
schools is such as to relieve the Library Board of much
responsibility-though school Libraries would be helped
and not hindered by closer relationship with the Public
Libraries.
Public reading rooms which provide current news-
papers are the exception rather than the rule in the
States, Chicago, however, being a splendid exception.
In Great Britain they prove one of the most popular
departments of the Library's work, though one hears an
occasional grumble at the expense or at the betting man
who rushes in for the latest telegrams. In South Africa
the public reading rooms frequently contain only the day
or week old paper that has already done duty in the
Subscriber's Rooms, but a more liberal spirit now
actuates some of the larger Libraries.
Few English Libraries permit chess or draughts on
the premises, and I am only acquainted with one that
has a smoking room. On the contrary most American
Libraries encourage the use of the Library as a quiet
club-though the large existence of the woman Librarian
serves to banish St. Nicotine. South Africa is free and
easy in its ways and there is a delightful homeliness and
liveableness about many of its Libraries which few in
America and hardly any in Great Britain can equal.
The use of the Library rooms by the literary clubs
and societies of the towns is not so much encouraged in
England as it is in America, and it has been practically
unknown in South Africa, except at Cape Town, but a
change seems imminent and Johannesburg promises to
lead the way in a welcome innovation which will
make the Library the home of all literary movements in
its vicinity. Other towns are wondering if they also
19
cannot make the dry bones of the valley living forces to
the young people of the town.
Lectures in Libraries are far more common in Great
Britain than they are in America, and while not unknown
in South Africa, are worthy of much more extended trial.
Great Britain has in many of her towns a magnificent
system of branches which are as characteristic as are the
American delivery stations. Out here branches are
practically unknown, each little village preferring inde-
pendence to relationship with the one large Library of a
district, but I believe that the solution of the South African
Library problem will very largely be found in the linking
up of the smaller Libraries with the larger, and an effi-
cient system of interchange. The only effective branch
Library that I know in South Africa is that of Kenilworth
attached to Kimberley, and this is maintained by the
liberality of De Beers Company for its employees, and
constitutes at this moment the only Public Library in
South Africa which in all departments is free and open
to all the residents of the place which contains it.
For readers in scattered country districts, America in
her Library system especially caters. Great Britain
more frequently ignores this most necessary work, and
in our South African Library system one of the best
features is the way that the governmental grant aids to
establish and fosters the growth of Libraries in places
that would be deemed too petty to have a Library in
Great Britain or America, unless in England they
possessed a Verney as landowner, in Scotland were the
birthplace of a celebrity, or in America were chosen as
recipient of a millionaire's gift. These Libraries, fre-
quently poor, generally isolated, only need linking up
with the larger Libraries to produce a Library system
that is unequalled. *
Rapidly glancing at the Library economy of the three
countries we find that the hours of opening and closing
are much the same. English and South African Libra-
ries are usually closed on far more days than is customary
* "But a colonial town is ashamed of itself if it has not its garden,
its hospital, its public library, and its two or three churches, even
(South Africa, by A. Trollope, 1878.)
in its early days.”
Work
20
in America, but this is mainly because they are under-
staffed. America has practically abolished the frequently
unnecessary inconvenience of closing the Library three
or four weeks in the year for stock-taking. When
Libraries are properly staffed they can with advantage
keep open nearly every day in the year, and can shut in
sections for cleaning and stock-taking. Closing Libraries.
on Public Holidays is utterly indefensible--especially if
they open on Sundays. Yet if Libraries open on Sun-
day no member of the staff should work seven days a
week-even at the cost of closing the lending depart-
ment one half-day a week as most English and
American Libraries do*
Of course in South Africa our lending departments
are entirely limited to subscribers, while in America and
Great Britain they are as free as our public rooms.
Ratepayers or burgesses there use the Library entirely
without charge and frequently without any further form-
ality than the signature of a guarantee to return books.
Other residents have to get a rate-payer's or burgess's
undertaking to be responsible for books lent. In but
few places may an applicant leave a money guarantee-
but speaking from the Library point of view the signature
system leads to endless trouble, and a system of deposit.
as usually adopted in South Africa works infinitely bet-
ter--though it might in certain cases deter the poorest
from borrowing books.
Age limits are practically unknown in South Africa,
and they are higher in Great Britain than in the States.
The Library of Congress admits readers at 16, the Cor-
poration of London at 18, the British Museum at 21.
Less than a score of English Libraries allow the
public access to the Library shelves, and most of these
only with an elaborate system of wicket gates and bar-
riers, while the majority of Libraries use an indicator,
usually of the kind invented by Mr. Cotgreave of West
Ham. In America these are little used-two Libraries
at least in South Africa use them. For the issue of
fiction an indicator offers undoubted advantages as this
* It is noteworthy that by Proclamation of 16th July, 1824, the Cape
Town Library was open every evening from 7 till 9.30, Sundays
excepted.
21
invention throws upon the seeker after the latest or the
most sensational novel the labour of hunting for its
number over a small space, instead of sending members
of the Library staff all over the buildings. Rapidity
of issue on busy nights is much helped by their
use, and to turn an unordered crowd of men and women
loose among a collection of novels as we frequently do
in South Africa does not help towards good reading and
only serves to hinder the Library staff.
No method of Library issue that has ever been
invented equals that of the Cotgreave indicator either
in simplicity, rapidity, or accuracy; as English expe-
rience has proved, but failing these the next best system
is undoubtedly the card-changing system-and few or
no American or British Libraries use the out-of-date
ledger system used so often in South Africa.
Classification of books on the shelves according to
subject is the ideal of every Library, but in spite of many
elaborate systems few Libraries in Great Britain have
yet accepted any uniform plan. Two systems divide
America, but under each the Libraries are closely and
minutely classified to the great advantage of those who
use them. Except at Cape Town, Bulawayo, and the
Reference Department of Kimberley I am unaware of
any attempt at scientific classification in South Afriea,
yet it is little to be doubted that the Dewey or Decimal
system is making headway both in England and in
America and will also be adopted in South Africa-thus
enabling all Libraries to adopt a uniform system.
As for the time allowed for reading, two weeks seems
universal but fines for exceeding this period vary
tremendously. Manchester has never imposed a fine-
California on the contrary makes it a misdemeanour to
detain a Library book thirty days after you have been
asked to return it. In South Africa we fear to impose
fines for fear that we shall lose subscriptions.
As to Library staffs, America boasts of an elaborate
system for training Librarians in their profession, but
practically it is seldom available for any but assistant-
librarians because Librarianships are there, like most
civil appointments, party spoil to be divided among the
22
faithful henchmen of the victors at each election! In
England, Librarianships are seldom the prey of political
party, they are usually advertised and there is often keen
competition, in which not infrequently the trained and
capable assistant from a Library is defeated by the local
candidate who has possibly earned a pension in some
other sphere of life and whom it is desired to give a
supposedly easy billet to! But the idea of a Librarian
as something more than a mere keeper of books is
abroad in the land, and the Library Association has
instituted a professional examination, though at present
its diploma is held by no Librarian! Both in England
and in America, Libraries have found it advantageous
that assistants shall have had at least some biblio-
graphical training, and that experienced assistants
are the best methods of making the contents of the
Library readily accessible.
Out here Librarianship has grown up with the
Library movement, and against the one Librarian of
Cape Colony who seems to have remained in his profes-
sion to develop in a most remarkable manner the Cape
Town Library-need I say that I refer to Mr. Jardine?
-all else that I can learn of previous generations of
Library assistants is that they deserted their libraries-
the one to win the name and fame of being the greatest
of South African poets-while the other became your
first premier. But Pringle and Molteno were hardly
trained Librarians, and the apparent lack of that native
product in South Africa has led to the appointment of
those who have gained some experience in the Libraries
of the Home Country.
In America more women are employed in Libraries
than in Great Britain, and the great superiority of the
children's Libraries in the States is doubtless due to the
fact that they are in the charge of women. Of course
the woman Librarian is paid a less salary than the man,
but it must never be forgotten that a staff which does not
look to its profession as other than a temporary occupa-
tion and is frequently changing, is not the best staff.
Girls in a Library may be younger and fresher than boys
-possible of a better type than many of the boys that
our small incomes compel us to employ, but however
23
much they may be desirable from the æsthetic point of
view, youth and freshness are not the best aids when you
seek some out-of-the-way book or desire information in
some by-path of knowlege!
English Librarians work longer hours than American,
but reliable statistics as to South African Libraries are
not available. Many Libraries here are apparently open
11 hours a day for 6 days a week (and some hours on
Sunday too) with only a staff of one, but so many of the
South African Libraries are open without any staff at
all, except the kindly person who drops in once a week
to set things straight, that without a personal acquaint-
ance with each it were hard to draw any conclusion.*
The same remark would apply to the salaries paid in
South Africa to Librarians, for the average amount paid
in salaries in the country is not £20 per annum. Out-
side Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, Durban,
Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg the total salaries
paid in any one Library do not exceed £250 per
annum. Manchester pays in salaries nearly £9,000 a
year, while Chicago pays £27,000 and the higher
efficiency of the American Library is very largely due to
the fact that she can not only attract the best men to her
service, but that she can afford to pay them a salary
which will be high enough to prevent commercial life
offering higher inducements.
*There lies before me as I write a meritorious little catalogue of
some 2,000 books in the public library of -, which bears
on its title page the legend "Subscribers are requested to be
particular in entering in the Book kept for that purpose the dates
of removing and returning books, and to place all returned books
on the Hon. Secretary's table." But of the larger libraries we
get a view in the following extract from Mr. Lewis's Report on
Public Libraries :-
"I cannot help remarking here the different ideas that seem to
prevail regarding the duties of the Librarian. Some of the Com-
mittees appeared satisfied if that official was in attendance, the
catalogue being allowed to take care of itself; whilst in some of
the larger institutions one could detect that the amount of clerical
work expected of the Librarian during Library hours, was so
great that a large portion of the cataloguing must have been
done in private time that ought to have been devoted to
recreation.'
24
Of associations of Library workers America had
the first and this is still the largest. England
has her own Association, a very strong association of
Assistants, and an independent society of Public
Librarians. England publishes three Library journals.
and so does America. Though debarred from all active
part in the English association, even of voting at the
Council elections - South Africa has no Library associa-
tion-no Library journal-but I trust that each year
opportunity will be found at the meetings of this
Association to have a meeting of those interested in the
Library development of this sub-continent. America
believes in conferences of co-workers in Libraries, and so
does England, and if the isolation of the South African
Libraries makes it impossible in any other way, I trust
the annual meetings of this society may serve to draw
together the workers in the different Library fields for
exchange of ideas and comparison of work.*
* So far back as January, 1890, on the proposition of the Hon. P. M.
Laurence, Judge President of the High Court of Griqualand
West, then its chairman, the Kimberley Library Committee
resolved “that . . . it is desirable that a S.A. Library Associa-
tion should be formed as soon as practicable." The matter was
referred to the Committee of the South African Library, and this
letter was received in reply :-
5th March, 1890.
Dear Sir,-At a meeting of my Committee held this month it
was, after some interchange of opinion, resolved that I should
procure the rules of the English and American Library Associa-
tions after which my Committee would take the matter up.
I remain, Dear Sir, Very truly Yours,
F. S. LEWIS, Librarian.
This was the end of the matter, apparently, so far as the Cape
Town Library went, but Professor Kidd of Grahamstown in
the " Cape Times "
of 3rd April, 1903, states that "Some
months ago, through a great friend of efficiency, I put before the
present Colonial Secretary, a suggestion concerning the formation
of a Library Association and the holding of a congress. The
reply was the non-committing one of Most admirable suggestion,
but this is not the proper time. Better wait a bit.' Waacht-
een-bietje seems the accepted Cape-Dutch translation of the
Colonial motto of "Spes Bona," but what else can you do when
Cape Colony only possesses three trained librarians at present!
Yet by joint action of all the Colonies at some future meeting
of the S.A.A.A.S. it is possible we may have a congress of those
interested in libraries.
25
Before attempting to sum up the conclusions of this
hastily compiled and rambling paper I would desire to
acknowledge the great assistance that I have obtained
from the "Analysis of English and American Libraries'
by Mr. Andrew Keogh, now of Yale and formerly of
Newcastle Libraries. From an essay of Mr. Miller, of
Bulawayo, on South African Libraries, published in "The
Library Assistant" I have also gained much information,
while the writings of Edward Edwards, Thomas Green-
wood, W. I. Fletcher, the Hon. P. M. Laurence, and
many another have been laid under contribution, in my
endeavour to place reliable information before you.
As the result of our examination of the three systems
we may conclude that the English Librarian regards
his Library rather as the storehouse of knowledge than
as its distributing centre. The traditions of being a
Keeper of Books are to a large extent still with him, and
the impossibility of ever lending a book which charac-
terises the older Libraries - such as the Bodleian- is a
custom which it is hard to break away from and it is
this tradition and this custom which makes the reference
Library so large in England. In England the desire
of the Librarian is to have the best books on every
subject, and to keep them if possible on the Library
premises. * In America the ideal seems to be to obtain
the most popular books- those that will circulate best—
* I fear that many persons, Librarians and members of Library Com-
mittees as well as those not interested in Libraries, are still of
the opinion of Sir Anthony Absolute that "The Circulating
Library is an ever-green tree of the fruit of diabolical knowledge
and that others are yet in that elementary stage of appreciation
of the true scope of a Library's work that Charles Dickens
voiced at Manchester in 1851 as "a great free school inviting the
humblest workman to come in and be a student."
To those who wish to see Libraries doing their fullest and best work
there is greater force in the words recorded by Froude, addressed
to the volumes in the Library of All Souls' College Oxford "One
of the best in England and one (in my day at least) so little used
that, if a work was missed from its place the whole College was
in consternation. Carlyle looking wistfully at the ranged folios
exclaimed :-
Ah, Books, Books! You will have a poor account to give of your-
selves at the day of judgment. Here you have been kept warm
and dry, with good coats on your backs, and a good roof over
26
and many an up-to-date committee will buy no book,
keep no book, that is not a good circulator. More often
than not the American Library is a club for the reading
of new books-frequently only of new novels. I fear
that the same charge may with truth be levelled against
many a South African Library, and though Kimberley
does its share in this respect. it is not quite so bad as
Sir Frederick Young pictured it, for we certainly do not
issue a greater percentage of fiction than any other
Library-indeed it would be hard for any Library to
beat Johnny Gilpin's Edmonton in this respect, which
issues 98 per cent according to the last available figures!
But though English Libraries do circulate much fiction,
there is yet set before the Libraries of the Old Country
a very lofty ideal, and they do attempt a great deal of
educational work.
This is true of but few of the American Libraries, for
the majority of these are run on business lines and on
these lines alone. There is less formality about the
your heads, and whom have ye made any better or any wiser than
he was before ?'
Carlyle set on foot an agitation.. for a public lending Library
and
the result was the infinitely valuable institution known as the
London Library in St. James's Square. Let the tens of thousands
who, it is to be hoped, are made better and wiser by the books
collected there remember that they owe the privilege entirely to
Carlyle. The germ of it lay in that original reflection of his on the
presence of a gaol and the absence of a Library in Dumfries. His
successful effort to realise it began in the winter of 1839."
May the Libraries of South Africa be similarly developed till every
isolated student may be able to say of them as M. Guizot said of
Carlyle's "unpractical dream" when it had been realised :-"If
the London Library had not existed I should have felt great
inconvenience. It is a very useful Library...... It is a great
inconvenience to me to be obliged to go to the British Museum
and not to be able to work in my own room with my own books;
that is a great part of the pleasure of working."
The weight of opinion is gradually shifting to the view of Carlyle, of
Guizot, Leigh Hunt and many another too numerous to quote, and
thus finds expression in Wheatley's How to form a Library:
"The old idea of a Library was that of a place where books that were
wanted could be found, but the new idea is that of an educational
establishment where persons who know little or nothing of books
can go to learn what to read.... in smaller and less important
towns a more modest object has to be kept in view, and the wants
of readers, more than those of consulters of books, have to be
considered."
27
better Libraries of the States-less red tape- and in all
there is an attempt on the part of the Library to reach
down to the special needs of the people. The Library
seeks to be the centre of literary feeling in the town
-it seeks to attract the children and to lead them into
the use of better books.
The South African Libraries can with advantage
adopt the best points of both systems. We should
attract the public and not attempt to discipline it-but
yet we should endeavour to lead the younger generation
toward the right use of the best books.
The American and the British peoples are not exactly
alike, and our South African public probably differs
from both; for example American productive scholar-
ship is far less than British, while South African can
hardly be said to have come into existence. The sale of
popular books is tremendous in America, less in Great
Britain, and small indeed in South Africa.
American Libraries seek the rather to be recreative
than educational, British Libraries to be educational
rather than recreative-South African are at present
more recreative than educational-yet the enormous
impulse that was given and is given to American
progress by her school system has been largely helped
by her Library system. The first stride America made
towards "licking creation was when Franklin founded
the Philadelphia Library, and her present liberal policy
in all educational matters is a natural continuation.
The modern American cheerfully taxes himself for his
Libraries, but he does not largely use any but the
lending departments, yet he frequently endows his
Library-and certainly his women-folk and his boys and
girls make good use of the Library. The Englishman
spends far less on his Library, but he takes from it and
reads in it vast quantities of history and travel and
technology, while his women-folk read the novels. The
South African uses the Library as a sort of occasional
club, he takes his recreative reading from it, and some
other more solid mental pabulum, but he is usually a
very busy man whose ideas are focussed rather round
his bank-book than his Library books, and he more often
28
than not is quite content to leave all serious reading and
recreative study to that middle or old age which he
devoutly hopes shall find him dwelling out of Africa.
Yet his women-folk use the Library a great deal, and
his boys and girls are accustomed in the schools to a
right appreciation of books, and as they grow up they
ought not to be permitted to grow out of the custom and
the use of them. Home education is the watch-word of
the Public Library in South Africa-and we must so
develop the Library system of the country that not one
child who has passed through its schools may remain
out of touch with a literary store-house.
I
And this is the crux of the situation here. Our
Libraries so far as their lending departments go are
essentially subscription Libraries and nothing more.
do not desire to belittle the fact that we have reading
rooms free and open to all, but the duty of the legislature
with regard to the Library movement will not have ceased
until lending Libraries free and without charge are
established.* In America we find such developments of
the work and if the legislature of South Africa by
increased aids were to add public lending departments,
the subscription departments would only temporarily
suffer and in the long run benefit. At Kimberley we
have tried the experiment of throwing all our rooms
open to the subscriber personally for the low annual
* In Public Libraries in S. Africa originally published in 1897
and reprinted in Collectanea (Macmillan, 1899) the Hon.
Mr. Justice Laurence says :--
"Libraries in S. A. are....subscription Libraries.... At Kimberley
the Committee have long been of opinion that such a system is
not the best, is only, in fact, a sort of temporary compromise,
and have at length succeeded in placing the institution under
their control in a sufficiently strong financial position to justify
the offer, in consideration of a slight increase in the municipal
grant, of an extension of the privilege of borrowing books,
without subscription or fee, on the same system as at home, to
every ratepayer. The offer has not yet been accepted.... At
Port Elizabeth, also, I believe it is in contemplation to apply a
recent bequest. ..to some similar purpose; and at Durban..
scheme for the municipalisation of the Library is also on foot.
It can scarcely be doubted that such an example, once set, would
prove sufficiently successful to provoke imitation, and thus
a
29
charge of £1, with one book at a time for home reading,
while families of three have full personal privileges for
£2 annually and families of five for £3 annually. This
we have been enabled to do, not by increased Government
grants, but because of the great help that we receive
from De Beers Company (renting as it does its village
Library from us at an annual cost of £200 and giving
us in addition £250 per annum) and because in past
years not only have the Library buildings been built
and furnished and stocked, but an endowment fund of
upwards of £6,000 accumulated to add to our one little
legacy. But in Kimberley with all our resources we
have reached the ultima thule as regards lowering of
subscriptions unless the Government are prepared to
further recognise the work that we are attempting.
The result has been a gratifying increase of revenue
from subscriptions while the increased use of all depart-
ments is remarkable. As always the reading room is
free to all to consult or read books in, and it may be said
that there are no persons residing in Kimberley to whom
the subscription of £1 a year is a real bar to home read-
ing, yet American experience has shown rapid increases
in the use made of Libraries when even smaller barriers
have been removed, and I am confident that when the
time arrives when the Libraries of South Africa are
would greatly enlarge the scope of work and the sphere of
usefulness of Public Libraries in this part of the world.”
The offer referred to in this extract was made in 1894 and was as
follows:
"In any year in which the Kimberley Borough Council shall contri-
buté a sum of not less than £250 to the funds of the Library all
ratepayers shall be entitled to borrow books from the Library
without payment of any subscription or fee, subject to such
regulations as may from time to time be framed by the
Committee."
The proposed regulations gave to every ratepayer upon production
of evidence as such, and of deposit to cover value of books
borrowed, the right of borrowing one set of books, "but not to
be take out any work which has not been in the Library for
a period of at least six months."
The rateable value of Kimberley has varied from three quarters to
one and a half million, and a rate of One Twentieth of a penny
in the pound (roughly speaking equal to the half-penny rate on
the annual value as in Great Britain) would produce from £150 to
£300 a year.
30
placed more under public control, and larger sums of public
money are paid toward their support, their usefulness.
will be enormously increased. Something about the
fact and the sense of ownership in a public institution,
free and untrammelled, provided by the collective action
of the community for all classes of the community, and
not for sections of it, kept up mainly by the people's
taxes, and under popular government, makes the average
person accept and use opportunities far more largely
than any privileges that may be offered to him under the
guise of a subscription Library. Compare the marked
difference that is made of a popularly controlled Library
like that of Boston with that which is made of a Library
under a select Board like the Astor and one is forced to
the conclusion that the people like best to use that which
is their own! *
A Library which exists as a close corporation, no
matter how much it is aided by Government or Munici-
pality is only a stepping stone to that Public Library
which is an essential part of the educational system of
the state and which is always a standing witness of the
self-reliance and public-spirit of the community that
maintains and uses it.
The one expenditure and the only expenditure of a
Government which is returned an hundred-fold to the
country governed, is its expenditure in educational work
and if South Africa is to go ahead and make strides
like the States have done, it will only be by ajreturn to
the principle laid down in 1818, by which "Home
Education" is placed in the forefront of the schemes of
the Government.
Trollope says of the S.A, system of libraries :---
"A subscription of £1 per annum enables the reader to take a set of
books home. This seems to be a munificent arrangement; but
it should always be remembered that at Boston, in the United
States, any inhabitant of the City may take books home from
the public library without any deposit and without paying any-
thing. Among all the philanthropical marvels of public libraries,
that is the most marvellous."
31
APPENDIX A.
THE PRESENT QUESTION IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Since the foregoing paper was written I have been asked to
append some remarks as to the question of the provision of
bi-lingual libraries in South Africa, and as to the adaptability of
the library system of the country to the provision of books for
Home Reading Unions. Two separate suggestions were made.
One that a library should be attached to every post office (in
charge of the postal clerks) at which there should be collections of
English and Dutch books, distributed from some central office.
Another that there should be a series of travelling libraries started
by a voluntary society organised to promote home-reading in South
Africa.
Distributing stations as suggested in the first proposal would
be eminently useful, but why select the postal officials for the
task, and why a central office for the country? One would
prefer linking up the districts with the nearest town, and the
selecting the fittest person in a district to take charge-probably
the schoolmaster or schoolinistress, who by the energy of the
Education Departments will probably have the beginning of a
useful library in the school-house. Low postal rates for books
addressed to and from a library would much help the student or
the reader on a solitary farin-but as pointed out already the
Library system of South Africa is such that it lends itself to
infinite development if but a few energetic workers in a district
take up its cause. Place but two or three intelligent reading men
or women in a district, and, if they choose, their influence can soon
be felt. And the local effort gathers infinite help from the practical
doubling of its funds by Government, and the limitation of such
help to only the first £100 would soon be abolished if there were a
general feeling in the country that libraries needed more assistance,
The voluntary society might or might not work well-but its
efforts would bear much more fruit if directed to the development
of the present system than in organising a new one.
Netherlands South African Association in Holland "
for many
years attempted to encourage the use of High-Dutch in the Libraries
of the late Republics by forwarding the works of the best Dutch
authors. A similar society formed to provide English books
would no doubt bear fruit now.
Tho
It must, however, be remembered that the Dutch that is spoken
in South Africa is not the Dutch of Holland as the following
statement bears witness:-
32
"The two main languages spoken in South Africa are Capc
Dutch and English. Cape Dutch is spoken by the great majority
of the rural population, whilst English is generally the language
of the great cities and trading population. In the Cape Colony
both languages have equal rights. In Natal, Transvaal, Orange
River Colony and Rhodesia, English is the only recognised official
language but where desired Dutch is also taught in the Schools.
The native languages together with the little Dutch, German
and French, etc., spoken here, we leave out of account... In the
struggle for existence between languages, the easiest language
always wins, So there can be no doubt that Cape Dutch will win
against the Dutch. And even more as regards the struggle for the
upperhand between the two languages of the land, when we oppose
Dutch to English, then it is certain that we must gradually lose
(because Dutch is an unlearnable language for 90 per cent of the
Africanders and Englishmen in South Africa) but it we put Cape
Dutch alongside of English, then we are not only enabled to keep
our ground but even to win ground, as Cape Dutch is still easier
than English, and Englishmen in South Africa gradually come to
the conclusion that it is useful to know Cape Dutch."
(S. J. DU TOIT, in " A Comparative Grammar of English and
Cape Dutch." Paarl, 1902.)
Whether the Taal is a language which should rank "amongst
the most beautiful and purest languages of the world" as wrote a
correspondent of the "Middellandsche Afrikander
some time
since, or whether it be a debased patois is a matter which can well
be left to the disputants who for upwards of seventy years have
fought the question. Yet as Professor Logeman put it "if the
aggregate of articulate utterances which serve a community of
people to tell one another of their thoughts, their hopes, their
beliefs, their best and noblest feelings, their wishes, their loves,
their purest affections, to express their joys and their griefs, their
hatred and their admiration if that is a language...
reasonable argument can possibly be adduced for denying this title
to Cape Dutch ?”
what
The learned Dr. Changuion published in 1844 "De Nederduitsche
Taal in Zuid-Afrika hersteld. Zijnde eene Handleiding tot de
kennis dier taal naar de plaatselijke behoefte van het land gewi-
zigd❞—a work in which the barbarisms of Cape Dutch are exposed
and in the preface of which he states "we have observed so many
fresh proofs of indifference in regard to the Dutch language that
we have altogether changed our opinion as to the possibility of
checking the evil. We have come to consider the language as a
physician does an incurable patient whose final sufferings may
perhaps be delayed, whose certain dissolution may perhaps be
retarded, but of whose complete recovery there no longer exists the
faintest hope."
<<
Strong as are these words there are other words by the
present Chief Justice-Sir Henry de Villiers-written in 1876.
"It is idle to expect that Cape Dutch will soon, if ever,
33
become a literary language, in the highest sense of the
term, capable of competing either with Dutch or English.
Poor in the number of its words, weak in its inflections, wanting
in accuracy of meaning, and incapable of expressing ideas con-
nected with the higher spheres of thought, it will have to undergo
great modification before it will be able to produce a literature
worthy of the name. And the force and energy which would be
wasted in bringing the language into such a condition would be
more usefully employed in appropriating that rich and glorious
language which is ready to our hands as a literary language of the
first rank."
As Sir Henry further quotes "A language is only dear to us
when we know its capabilities and when it is hallowed by a
thousand connections with our civilisation, our literature and our
comforts. So long as it only lisps the inarticulate utterances of
half-educated men, it has no hold on the hearts of those that
speak it, and it is readily neglected or thrown aside in favour of
the more cultivated idiom, which, while it finds names for
luxuries of civilisation before unknown, also opens a communica-
tion with those who appear as heralds of moral and intellectual
regeneration."
But there does exist a small Cape-Dutch Literature, though as one
of its admirers has said, "Of course we cannot pretend to possess a
varied and extended literature like England has. There can be no
question of rivalry as yet, however, the material of development
is there" ["Life in Afrikanderland," by Cios--1897], and it should
be the office of every large library to collect and preserve all the
home produced literature of the country. Whether Cape-Dutch
does or does not become the future language of So th Africa it is
nevertheless a most interesting philological study, and, as in the
case of the Welsh, Erse, and Gaelic tongues, librarians should the
rather seek to preserve its every printed specimen than to import
and shelve the High-Dutch productions of Holland which few
colonials of European descent can read.
•
•
As the Hon. Mr. Justice Laurence writes, "it must be borne in
mind that while few books have been published in the colonial
patois, the High-Dutch of the Netherlands is almost as unfamiliar as
English to the ordinary country Boer who would find Hildebrand
as perplexing as Thackeray. In one town where the leading
spirit is a prominent member o' the Afrikander Bond an interest-
ing experiment has been tried. Two public libraries, one
English, and one Dutch were each housed in a wing of the Town
Hall. In both there was a fair collection of books. In this, a
thoroughly Dutch district, the average monthly circulation of
books was in the English Library 230, in the Dutch 7. The
annual subscriptions to the former were £39; in the latter £8.
The English Library still flourishes, but the Dutch Library has
for some time been closed."
At Johannesburg the late Government attempted to foster the
reading of Dutch literature by giving an annual grant on condition
3
34
that a large proportion of it was spent in the purchase of Dutch
books.
The uselessness of such a stipulation for the promotion of the
object sought in a town where English was mainly spoken is self-
evident, and the very flexibility and adaptability of the South
African library system renders any such regulation futile. In
catering for all classes of the community and attracting them to
the library, because it provides what they require, those who
are entrusted with the management enlarge its means doubly
by the revenue from subscriptions and from the grants based on
such subscriptions.
The language question of South Africa presents no difficulties
whatever, as the vitality of the library system depends on the
needs of the district being adequately met and the greater
demand will inevitably be met, in spite of the predilections of
individuals, as a matter of good policy. But there must be no
sentimental forcing of High-Dutch literature on a community
which cannot read it, or of English literature on a community
which does not want to read it.
What South Africa wants, and wants badly, is some method by
which the boys and girls who have been educated in the excellent
public schools may be kept in touch with the books which they
have learned to appreciate. In the towns, large and small, and on
the farms we need a system by which the education gained in the
schools may be encouraged and continued, and not laid aside
as a worn out garment of youth. Time and again we read among
the older descriptions of South Africa that it has not a reading
race of inhabitants. So far back as 1805 the author of "Gleanings
in Africa" noted that "The residence of the English....has not
inclined them to a fondness of reading....
"" He then records
that a society of Dutch gentlemen had lately set on foot a
circulating library* and continues: "A great portion of that tim››
which is wasted in indolence, and amid the fumes of tobacco, may
henceforward be more profitably employed in improving the mind,
and acquiring a more perfect knowledge of men and manners.
And may we not, also, indulge the fond hope that the native
tribes....may soon experience those happy effects that result from
this powerful engine of civilisation ?" Barrow has told us that
"a book of any kind "was "rarely seen in any of the farmers'
houses except the Bible and William Sluiter's Gezangen," while
Borcherds states that "no respectable family was seen without a
Bible in its possession, some too with books of prayer or hymns,
with other religious books which were read with attention and
reverence. Some families owned Flavius Josephus, and books
of martyrology." Trollope in 1878 commented on the few readers
of books at Cape Town-and it seems that the only way in which
this constant reproach upon the inhabitants of South Africa can
be removed is by the establishment in every district of at least
* Probably at the corner of Longmarket Street and Heerengracht
Adderley Street), and known for many years as the late Mr. James Howell's
circulating Library and stationer's shop.
35
one circle of the National Home Reading Union. The work
which this society is doing under the able direction of its energetic
secretary, Miss Mondy, of Surrey House, London, W.C., in the
organisation upon useful lines of reading is one which commands
the active sympathy of every one who has the true interest of
public education at heart.
The aims of this society have been well summarised by the late
Lord Russell of Killowen in these words :-
"Why was it formed, and whence came the inspiration which
suggested its formation? You will recollect that the University
of Cambridge, as far back as 1873, started that successful scheme
of University Extension Lectures by which it was sought to afford
to those who desired it, the continuation of their University studies
after the demands of the world upon them had necessitated their
ceasing to live in connexion with the Universities themselves.
And the success of that experiment-for experiment it was-
showed that there were large masses of earnest persons, men and
women, who did not accept the fallacious idea that education
ended with the school and the college, but who regarded education
as a thing which began at the cradle and did not stop short till
the grave. And it occurred to some minds that the same principle,
slightly altered in its application, might have a wide field of useful-
ness if applied, with modifications, to a much larger class,
beginning with the children of the humbler classes, the children
in the elementary schools of this country. This idea was not a
new one, for already an experiment of a similar kind had been set
on foot in America, and in the case of the Chatauqua Literary and
Scientific Circle the germ of that idea which has resulted in the
National Home Reading Union was found. The difference between
the institutions on the other side of the Atlantic and this, however,
is important. It is this: that, whereas the American Scientific
and Literary Association was confined to those already well
educated and relatively in good conditions of life, it was sought to
extend the benefits of the National Home Reading Union to much
larger classes of the community, and as I have said, beginning
with the humblest class, the children in the elementary schools.
And, accordingly, at the instance of the Rev. Dr. Paton, Congre-
gational Minister of Nottingham, who may properly be regarded as
the parent of this institution, it was founded in the year 1889.
What, then, is the character of this institution, what are its
aims, what are the objects which it proposes to itself? These may
be stated in a sentence: To cultivate the habit amongst the
people of systematic educational reading; in a word, to endeavour
to inspire-beginning with the young, who are best capable of
receiving lasting impressions-to inspire the love of systematic, as
opposed to desultory and often useless, reading.
"What are the means by which this aim is to be realized?
The formation of reading circles, in the first place, by which a
number of persons with similar tastes, conveniently situate with
regard to acquaintanceship and occupation, should pursue the same
course of reading, meet regularly to discuss the results of the
36

reading, profit by one another's experience, and have their ideas
and views tested by the ideas and views of others. That was the
first step towards accomplishing the Union's object. And the
reading circles were divided into three sections-the first, which
one may call the elementary, was for the young, for persons who
were still in the elementary schools, or who had passed the six
standards of the elementary schools; the second, a working men's
section, or, as it is now called, the General Course; and, lastly, the
third section, following the lines of the University Extension
system, and, mainly, a higher course specially addressed to those
who desire to continue their self-improvement upon the lines of
University teaching and higher culture. How was this machinery
to be set on foot and to be kept going, and whence were to come
the sinews of war? Well, I think you will all agree that no scheme
could more economically achieve a great object than the National
Home Reading Union, so far as the demands made upon its mem-
bers are concerned. For ordinary membership, according to the
circle to which they belong, the annual payments are 1s., 1s. 6d.,
and 3s.-payments which certainly leave no margin of profit to the
National Home Reading Union at all, and for which very full
benefits and advantages indeed are given to its members. Now,
what are those advantages which they get for this membership?
First of all, they get nine Magazines a year, over nine months of
the year- from October to June; next, each circle is supplied with
a Book List; and, in the third place, if difficulties arise in the
course of the reading and explanations or references to fuller infor-
mation are required, advice of the best kind is at their disposition.
They apply in the first instance to the indefatigable Secretary,
Miss Mondy, who has played so devoted a part in the fortunes of
this Union, and she has at her disposition, by application in large
measure to the Master of Downing College, the means of getting
the high-class, but voluntary, aid of the learned men of the Uni-
versities to solve difficulties, or to advise in the work, of the
youthful reader. And surely there are few, if any, institutions
which offer such advantages as these for so small a pecuniary
payment!"
The work of the library is not to provide all the copies of the
books selected for reading and discussion, as the N. H. R. U.
provides these at practically nominal prices, but to have on its
shelves all the books on the reference list supplied by the Society-
to elucidate points in the text read, to illustrate its meanings, and
to enable the student attracted to the subject to continue his
reading. It should be the duty of the library to see that every book
selected by the N. H. R. U. for inclusion on its list is on
the library shelves-and thus to fall into line with this great edu-
cational movement.
37
APPENDIX B.
THE LAW OF CAPE COLONY RELATING TO LIBRARIES
The notice under which grants were first made was as follows:—
GOVERNMENT NOTICE, No. 442—1874.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Cape of Good Hope,
31st August, 1874.
The subjoined memorandum of Regulations to encourage Public
Libraries in the smaller Towns of the Colony is published for
general information.
Applications for amounts to which Libraries may be entitled
should be accompanied by duly authenticated Statements of the
Receipts and Disbursements of such Institutions for each of the
three years ended 31st December last.
REGULATIONS.
J. C. MOLTENO,*
Colonial Secretary
1. That the Government annual grant shall not exceed the
annual average amount raised by subscriptions during the preced-
ing three years, or, in the case of new libraries, shall not exceed
the amount of subscriptions received for the first year or average
of two years, but in no case to be more than £100 per annum,
provided that these grants shall be made out of moneys voted
annually by the Parliament for that purpose.
2. That no aid be given when the aforesaid subscriptions do not
amount to £25.
3. That the public be admitted free whenever the Library is
open.
4. That a report be presented to the Government annually,
shewing the amount raised by Subscriptions during the year, and
generally the state of the finances of the institution, the circulation
of books, and the number and description of those purchased,
acquired or sold during the year.
Regulation number 3 is the only one that has been altered, and
now reads:-
* Afterwards Sir John Molteno, and who had been "by common consent
designated as the first Cape Premier" when responsible government was
granted. He had been appointed an assistant to the Cape Town Library
In 1831, but this had soon proved to be too narrow and restricted an
opening.
38
3. "That whenever the Library is open, the public be admitted
free, and allowed access to all works of reference and to all books
and periodicals in the Library. Access to newspapers shall be
under such conditions as each Library Committee may determine.
[For the purposes of this regulation a newspaper shall be defined
as a publication, with or without illustrations, published at not
less than once a week, and reporting or commenting upon current
news of any kind. All publications issued fortnightly, monthly,
bi-monthly, or quarterly shall be considered as periodicals.]
This amplification is on a line with the provision in the pro-
clamation of 3 Feb., 1830, with reference to the South African
Library which runs "And all respectable persons, even although
they be not subscribers shall have free access thereto-together
with the use of the Books, Charts, or other Publications of the
Library of Reference; together with all other Publications not
required for immediate circulation: Provided always that no
person who is not a subscriber shall have the right of demanding
Books or other works to be taken out of the Library."
This library proclamation of 1830, drafted by Mr. Alexander
Johnstone Jardine (appointed by Lord Charles Somerset's procla-
mation of 28 May, 1824, "Sub-Librarian to the Public Library at
this place in the room of Mr. Thomas Pringle, resigned "), may be
said to form the basis on which the whole of the present library
system of South Africa has been built up. the provisions for
subscribers to elect the governing body, &c., &c., will all be found
set forth here, and the germ of the system of lending out Reference
books is to be found in the provision that all books marked
"Reference" in the Catalogue of 1829 and all additions to this
class were not to be put into circulation except on special occasion
by permit.
But how much of the breadth of mind of Lord Charles Somerset's
proclamation of 1818 has been lost by 1830—though the later docu-
ment speaks of "the valuable library" which had been built up by
those gauging fees appropriated by these words:-" And whereas it
appearing likewise to be just and equitable that as the Wine Trade
is the source of opulence and comfort to the Inhabitants of the
Colony, from that source should be drawn such moderate revenue
as shall contribute to the permanent welfare of the rising genera-
tion, without bearing injuriously or even perceptibly upon the
Grower or Exporter of this important branch of our Commerce, I
have thought proper hereby to direct that a charge of One Rix
Dollar should be made for the gauge and certificate of measure-
ment of such cask of whatever denomination passed through the
market, which charge of One Rix Dollar shall be paid to the
Collector of Tithes to whose department the Gauger shall be
attached. And... the Collector of Tithes. . . shall keep a
separate account thereof in order, after paying the amount of the
Gauger's salary and his incidental expenses to deposit the remain-
der in the Government Bank (in the name of the following
committee, viz., the Colonial Secretary, for the time, Chief Justice,
ditto, His Majesty's Fiscal, ditto, Senior Minister Reformed
Church, Senior Minister Lutheran ditto, Senior Chaplain, English
39
CAPE COLONY.
Table shewing the amounts placed on the Estimates for "Miscel-
laneous Services," Museums, Libraries, etc.

Libraries.
South African
1881 1883 1886 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902
Cradock
900 925 600 1,350 1,350 1,550 1,000 1,550
275 275 275 175
275
East London
200
300 300
250 350
Graaff-Reinet
250
150
250
150
250
Grahamstown
200 200 200
300
300
300
200 400
Kimberley
200 300
350
350
350
300
400
King William's Town
Queenstown
200 200 200
300 300 300 200 300
200 150 200
:
Other Libraries on £
for £
Total Libraries exclud-
ing building grants
Building grants
Total Libraries includ-
ing building grants
Total Museums includ-
ing building grants
Total Sailors' Homes,
Cape Town Art
Gallery, Dispensary
and Fine Art Associ-
ation, &c., including
building grants
Total Vote placed on
Estimates
Actual
Expenditure
against total Vote as
shewn by Cape Sta-
tistical Register
..
1,300 1,500 1,500 4,875 4,76' 4,400 4,900 5,500
1,800 1,500 1,500
2,600 3,025
4,875
2,600 3,025 2,800 7,900 7,486 7,925 7,375 9,325
500 400 638 3,266 1,075 *6,512 *9,547
9,000 13,8871
2,600 3,525 3,200 8,538 10,752 9,000 13,887 18,872

1,250 1,250 1,250 7,850 6,240 7,300 4,670 5,770
,300 4,670
850
1,150 1,450 950 1,906 3,811 2,936 3,536 3,000
623,999 2
5,150 6,575 5,550 18,674 22,851 18,106 23,393 27,942

5,438 6,409 5,711 17,483 19,949 17,353 21,596
* Includes votes of £6,000 to Port Elizabeth for the Savage Library.
40
establishment), there to create a fund for the formation of a Public
Library which under certain Regulations hereafter to be framed
for my approval, by the Committee above named shall be open to
the Public, and lay the foundation of a system, which shall place
the means of knowledge within the reach of the Youth of this
remote corner of the Globe, and bring within their reach what the
most eloquent of ancient writers has considered to be one of the
first blessings of life "Home Education."
20th March, 1818.
CHARLES H. SOMERSET.
To return to the modern system; certain libraries are dealt with
specially in addition to the "moneys voted annually by Parliament
for the purpose " of £ for £ grants. Under the heading of
"Miscellaneous Services: Museums, Libraries," etc., provision is
made on the Cape Estimates for a variety of objects, and the table
on the preceding page shews the amounts which were so placed
in 1881, 1883, 1886, and 1898-1902. The table to some extent
may only be taken as approximate as certain sums provided in one
financial year and not expended in that year are sometimes inclu-
ded in the estimate of the following year and re-voted. The actual
total expenditures as given from the "Statistical Register" serve
to check the figures to some extent.
It will be seen that the annual vote for the maintenance of
libraries has grown from £2,600 in 1881 to £9,325 in 1902, while in
seven years little short of £22,000 has been provided on the esti-
mates for library buildings. When it is remembered that each £1
provided for maintenance or for buildings by the Government
must be met by at least £1 raised locally this means at least
£20,000 was spent on the maintenance of the libraries of Cape
Colony in 1902, while about £45,000 has been expended on
library buildings. That these figures are not over-estimated is
shewn by the following statement of government grants compared
with the amounts raised by various means locally as extracted
from the official returns of 1901-the last issued.
Total
Funds Raised
Locally.
Total
Government
Grant.
1,300
1,762
225
654
275
443
200
230
200
454
250
361
350
1,572
350
864
3,655
5,866
6,805
12,206
Cape Town
Cradock
Libraries.
East London
Graaff-Reinet
Grahamstown
King William's Town
Kimberley
Port Elizabeth
Other Libraries on £ for £
Total
:
41
If this year afford anything like an adequate comparison it would
appear that instead of Government,contributing £1 for each £1 raised
locally for Library maintenance it does not contribute on an
average much more than 10s., while in certain instances it does
not contribute anything like so much. And if this be true of main-
tenance it is probably truer of grants in aid of buildings-infor-
mation as to which it is much more difficult to trace-but an
example of which may be instanced in which the Cape Govern-
ment only contributed £1,000 to a library building extension fund
raised in Kimberley in 1898 which totalled £4,323.
Under the Books Registry Act of 1888 "Four....copies of the
whole of every book which shall be printed or lithographed in this
Colony....shall....be delivered free of any charge....to such
officer as the Governor shall....from time to time appoint....one
of such copies shall be delivered to the Librarian of the S. A.
Public Library and another to the Grahamstown Public Library,
and the remaining copies shall be disposed of as the Governor shall
direct."
Turning now from the regulations and provisions for direct
Governmental aid to Cape libraries, to such enactments as permit
local authorities to give grants in aid of libraries, it is interesting
to note that only one Town Council has the " power to....grant
such sums of money in aid of public libraries within the borough
as may from time to time be voted by a majority of two-thirds
of the Borough Council."
This power was conferred on
Kimberley by its Borough Act of 1883-which, however, so
limited the total revenues of the Borough that it has never been in
a position as yet to grant more than £200 per annum for library
purposes.
The general “ Municipal Act of 1882," however, gives power
to the Council of any Municipality to "from time to time make,
alter, or revoke by-laws or regulations for all or any of the
following purposes:- For establishing, maintaining and
regulating....public libraries, museums, &c..... But no such
by-law or regulation shall be contrary to the provisions of this
Act or of any other law in force in this Colony," and the limited
revenues of the Municipalities have prevented any other than
small annual grants in aid of libraries.
The Port Elizabeth Act of 1897 gives the Council power to
"contribute annually out of the Municipal revenue sums of
money," and to "make grants of land in aid of the following
institutions: P. E. Libraries....., P. E. Museum, P. E. Athe-
næum, &c., &c."
Turning to the oldest town in South Africa where the National
Library is situate we find that it is provided by the S. A. Public
Library Act of 1893 that "The Mayor of Cape Town shall be or
continue to be a member of the said Board (of Trustees) only if
and as long as there shall be paid annually by the Town Council
of Cape Town to the funds of the Library a sum of not less than
*It is interesting to note that by the courtesy of successive Governors &
copy of every book received under this Act is sent to the British Museum.
42
£300.... and whenever such payment shall not be made such
Mayor shall cease to be a member of the Board." This
This is
apparently the minimum at which Cape Town may municipally
have representation on a board whose whole constitution is laid
down by Act-but it does not appear that if Cape Town provided
£3000 annually it could have any larger representation. But the
South African Library is in altogether an abnormal position
and the sooner that the whole library system of the Cape Peninsula
-(in common with that of its municipal system generally as
foreshadowed by the Report of Peninsular Commission-) is altered
the better for this library and for the residents of Cape Town.
Every little suburb possesses its library, while the national library
of Cape Town with a population every day moving more and more
out into the suburbs vainly seeks to fill at once the functions of the
British Museum, the London Library, Sion College, Mudie's and
the ordinary municipal Public Library. National libraries as such
are outside the province of this survey-but the building of the
Cape Town library is altogether unsuited for any purpose but that
of a student's library of reference-and the sooner that the noble
Grey Library and the Dessinian Collection with their more recent
additions are adequately supported as a National Reference
Library the better. The enlarged and widened municipality of Cape
Town should well be able to establish and administer a system of
municipal libraries worthy of the City-and the municipality has
no more right to expect the national library to supply its whole
library needs than London to claim that the British Museum should
establish a circulation department for the benefit of suburban
readers.
[In Natal the system of grants from the Government to libraries
is much on the same principle as in Cape Colony, and the
municipality of Durban has for some years granted out of munici-
pal funds £200 for library purposes, which grant is now to be
increased to £300. At Johannesburg the matter of a municipal
grant is still, I believe, under consideration.]
43
APPENDIX C.
SOME ADDITIONAL NOTES ON DONATIONS.
THE DESSINIAN LIBRARY.
The following accounts, practically contemporary with the
foundation of the first public library in South Africa are interesting.
"Literature is wholly neglected. The chaplain of the garrison
takes in a few pupils but there is no good school in the Colony. A
good schoolmaster is much wanted. Such as can afford it, among
the English, give their children an education at home. The Dutch
go without.
A fine collection of the Latin and Greek Classics was left to the
public, by an old German gentleman, who died here; and they are
deposited in a room adjoining to the Lutheran Churh, called the
Public Library. However a friend of mine applying for admission,
it was thought to be an innovation upon established rules, and so
hazardous a step, that the Colonial Secretary was consulted upon
the occasion!
There is a subscription reading-room whose shelves are suppli d
with a very few novels, and books of travels; and one circulating
library to which Tom Jones and Humphrey Clinker have not yet
found their way. Intellectual refinement is, in fact, at the lowest
ebb, both among the Dutch and English. Their business and
pleasure are buying and selling..... For the polite arts, of course,
can have no admirer in such a community as this."
"Notes on the Cape of Good Hope made during an
Excursion in that Colony in the year 1820.”
London 1821.
“There is a public colonial library, lately erected by government,
and handsomely fitted up, both in point of taste and utility. It
consists of two spacious library rooms with apartments and appar-
atus for chemical experiments. The plan and arrangements are
excellent. It has been ingrafted on the Dessinian library,
heretofore under the management of the minister of the Calvinist
Church. Mr. Jaachim Nicolaas Van Dessin was born in Germany,
and having emigrated to the Cape about the middle of the
eighteenth century, became secretary to the orphan chamber.
Dessin was a tolerably well educated man, fond of society, and
being of lively, entertaining manners, became a welcome guest in
all parties. Collecting of books became his favourite pursuit ; but
44
he is said not to have been a man of science and literature; and it
must have been by extraordinary diligence that he was enabled
to bring together so many valuable publications, and to form such
a library in Cape Town. Detraction has published, that, at a time
of great mortality, when sales of the property of the dead and of
the distressed were held in every part of the town, Mr. Dessin
constantly attended, and purchased at a low price the books on
sale; but surely, when any man wishes to make a collection for the
benefit of the public, it is no disreputable circumstance to do so as
cheaply as possible, and thus enable himself to increase the col-
lection, which he means to bestow At his death he bequeathed
a small sum of money in trust for the gradual increase of the
library; and his object has been faithfully fulfilled by the Trustees,
who have added many modern publications.* Mr. Dessin died
unmarried; and by the manumission of his slaves, afforded
proof, that, whilst he had endeavoured during life to add to
the knowledge and improvement of others, he had not for-
getten to direct his own conduct in the paths of benevolence
and humanity. The collection thus originally formed, has
been greatly increased, by fines on small offences applied to the
purpose, by books presented by the good wishes, or by the vanity,
of recorded donors, and by the liberality of the Colonial Govern-
ment. The Library already boasts possession of the best ancient,
and the most recent modern publications, in religion, in the
classics, in history, poetry, geography, chemistry, and political
ecconomy; a most ample collection of essays, of voyages and
travels; and dictionaries of all ages and languages. The thing
that appears to be chiefly wanting, which Mr. Dessin could not
bequeath, is a collection of readers; for reading is not an African
passion."
State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822. By a Civil
Servant of the Colony. W. Wilberforce Bird.]
[
Ed. by H. T. Colebrooke.
THE GREY COLLECTION.
The Grey collection numbers some 5,000 volumes, and is rich
in costly and valuable manuscripts from the tenth to the seven-
teenth centuries, in Latin, Italian, Flemish, &c., besides many
* The Dessinian collection was catalogued in 1821 by the Revs Kauffmann
and Von Manger. The number of volumes is as follows:—
Theology
Jurisprudence
...
...
1094
...
...
277
Medicine
...
77
Philosophy
...
...
...
161
Mathematics
98
...
...
...
Natural History
...
183
History
Geography
...
Philology
Encyclopædias
...
...
789
...
186
...
...
306
...
Miscellaneous Anthors
...
...
495
...
***
•
899
45
rare and valuable editions of Black-letter and Early English
printed books. There is a fine copy of Caxton's Polychronicon of
1482, and a Shakspere folio of 1623.
Sir George Grey's words in making this great gift were, "I had
hoped that after my death, this Library, being left to some new
country might prove to it a treasure of great value, to some extent
helping to form the mind of each of its generations as they came
following on. . . Many circumstances attach me to the Cape
to the Public Library there, the site of which I chose, the first
stone of which I laid, which a great Queen's son opened in my
presence, which I may yet, perhaps, be permitted to visit in old
age. I believe South Africa will be a great country; that Cape
Town, or its vicinity, will for many reasons be the point of chief
education for its young men. There can, therefore, be no more
fitting or worthy resting-place for treasures which I have accumu-
lated with so much care.
The eminent Dr. Bleek was the first librarian of this collection,
and his catalogues of the collections in African and Polynesian
languages are standard authorities.
Anthony Trollope in 1878 wrote thus of this collection, "It would
be invidious to say that there are volumes there so rare that
one begrudges them to a distant Colony which might be served
as well by ordinary editions as by scarce and perhaps unreadable
specimens. But such is the feeling which comes up first in the mind
of the lover of books when he takes out and handles some of the
treasures of Sir George Grey's gift.... But why a M.S. of Livy,
or of Dante, should not be as serviceable at Cape Town as in
some gentleman's country house in England, it would be hard to
say, and the Shakespeare folio of 1623 of which the library
possesses a copy-with a singularly close cut margin-is no
doubt as often looked at, and as much petted and loved and
cherished in the capital of South Africa, as it is when in the
possession of a British Duke.”
It should be noted that by the rules of the Grey Library "Books of
particular value and manuscripts will only be accessible to the public,
under the personal inspection of the Librarian.... [who] ....is also
to give specific directions regarding the manner of handling.... as
he may find necessary," and that the same care is taken of this
library as if indeed it were housed in mansion of "British Duke
or in one of those magnificent public libraries that "American
millionaires" have scattered over the world-setting an example
that "South Africans" may yet follow!
Yet, ".
whisper it not in Gath," there exists a wicked story that
a professor at a neighbouring scholastic institution once waxed
wroth with a worthy librarian, because this "petted and loved
and cherished" First Folio was not handed over to the tender
mercies of a bevy of students to whom it would have been taking
risks to hand even the Staunton reproduction. As well might one
46
send the Elgin marbles or the Portland vase with the peripatetic
collections of the English Education department.
THE PORTER COLLECTIONS,
The Porter Collection was presented by the subscribers to a
fund for the purpose of having painted a life sized portrait of the
Hon. Mr. Porter to be deposited in the S. A. Library, in recog
nition of his many services to the Colony. The proposed honour
being declined, the Cape Town subscribers devot d the funds to the
purchase of standard works to be placed in the Library, and
apparently the Grahamstown subscribers devoted their subscrip-
tions to similar purposes, as a bookcase labelled "The Porter
Collection" stands in the reference room there.

THE J. OWEN SMITH COLlection at PORT ELIZABETH.
I am indebted to Mr. Cooper, the acting Librarian of Port
Elizabeth, for the information that this collection, now housed in
a special room in the new library building, was bequeathed to the
Library by the collector whose name it bears, who was for many
years a member of the Committee.
47
APPENDIX D.
TWENTY YEARS OF ONE SOUTH AFRICAN LIBRARY.
To the average individual the collective provision of books is as
much a matter of course in this 20th Century as is the collective
provision of any other public service. We may each one of us
possess a little collection of our own choice and favourite authors,
but the very multiplicity and number of the books that we may
want to read or to refer to makes it impossible that within any
ordinary house they may be kept. In fact, our private collection
of books bears the same relation to the great m ss of desirable
books that the little path that runs across our own particular plot of
land does to the great mass of roads and streets that connect the
various stands in a township. Individualists may object to a
general provision for the upkeep of roads and pathways, each
preferring to keep that portion in front of his own stand in repair,
but in the interests of the community it has been found that the
only way to ensure that all roads are well kept is for the community
collectively to maintain them. It is equally so with the adequate
provision of books, and only by the collective effort of the inhab-
itants of a township or district is it possible to ensure that there
shall be an effectual and continuous provision of a supply of books
to the inhabitants. Only by such means is it possible to ensure
that no person is kept by the accident of residence in a particular
district from communion with the past and present wisdom of the
world-for such in effect is the case of the man or woman who is
unable to have access to a collection of books.
Kimberley has an excellent library. Its history is unique. The
town does not owe its library to the benevolence of a Carnegie or a
Passmore Edwards, nor to that of one of its citizens who, having
made a fortune here, designed a useful provision for the rising
generations of the town. The Library has been provided entirely
by the collective action of the citizens of Kimberley, practically
unaided from any outside source, and it remains as a standing
monument of the usefulness of such collective action.
Not, as in the Home countries, did one generation of the citizens
of Kimberley pass an enactment throwing the cost of the establish-
ment and management of a library upon the rates of the town, but
the library here has been the result of voluntary effort entirely,
Not, as at Home, do all classes of the community pay a compulsory
rate for its upkeep, whether they use the institution or not, but
those who actually reap its benefits and enjoy its privileges pay for
its upkeep and control its management.
48
It was very soon after the establishment of a mining centre on
the Diamond Fields that an enterprising resident- Mr. George
Goch, afterwards M.L.A. for Kimberley, and now a resident in
Johannesburg-conceived the idea of supplying books to the
inhabitants. At some date in
date in "the stirring seventies he
commenced his library, and a great measure of success seems to
have attended the efforts of this "Mudie" of the Fields. In 1881,
mainly through the efforts of the late Hon. Mr. Justice Buchanan,
Judge President of the High Court of Griqualand, of Mr. Moses
Cornwall, then Mayor of Kimberley, and of Mr. M. Mendelssohn,
then the Rabbi of the Jewish Community, a limited liability com-
pany was formed to establish a "Public Library and Institute" in
Kimberley.
A rough draft of the deed of settlement of this company has
recently come into the possession of the Public Library Committee.
It is dated May 19, 1881, and is of considerable interest, as it bears
the signatures of some of those who proposed to become sharehol-
ders in the company. The company was apparently formed for
the philanthropic purpose of benefiting the community, and at the
same time earning some small dividend. It was floated at a time
when Kimberley was full of jointstcck projects for the benefit of
the town. Water, tramways, a theatre, and many another scheme
was then afloat for the good of the town, and just at this period the
first town's meeting was called to consider the propriety of establish-
ing public schools. The Library Company appears not to have been
sufficiently capitalised, for only by the means of a heavy mortgage
was it found possible to erect a building, which does not appear
to have been too well adapted to the purposes of a library, and the
new venture was not a success. A wave of financial depression
came over the town, and almost before the Library Company had
been in its premises a year the mortgagees foreclosed, and the
Library was shut up. The Library buildings were substantial ones,
and were sold to the municipality for £6,000, to serve the purposes
of a Town Hall for many years, and re-edified after the fire which
very largely destroyed them, they now form the premises of the
excellent coloured school which is so succesfully administered by
the School Board.
The wish for a Public Library in Kimberley did not die out with
the apparent failure of the joint-stock scheme. In September, 1882,
a town's meeting was called to consider the position, and resolutions
were passed authorising the appointment of a committee to establish
a Library on the lines of the Gove nment regulations giving grants
in aid. The local committee appointed by the town's meeting
immediately proceeded to treat with the Town Council, the new
owners of the Library premises, and arranged to rent two smali
rooms, which the Council agreed to erect beside the old buildings.
Early in 1882 the Library was opened under the new conditions,
the stock of books consisting of 3,000 volumes bought from the
liquidators of the old company, and apparently representing the
total stock of the old concern. It was the day of small things, and
only 150 subscribers could be found to use the new institution,
though this small number produced a revenue of £350 in subscrip-
49
tions, to which the Government added £200. The annual issue of
books in the first year was only a little more than 2,000, but it must
be remembered how small the stock of books was, and that personal
use of two small rooms, together with one book at a time for home
reading, cost £2 a year, or £3 it paid in quarterly instalments. The
institution, however, was destined to become popular, and in a very
short time the two small rooms grew inconveniently crowded, and
the committee cast about for new and more convenient premises
A site in De Beers road was at first suggested, but eventually a
stand in Dutoitspan Road was purchased. Strenuous efforts were
made to collect sufficient funds to erect the building without a
mortgage, and a special building fund was opened. Much liberality
was displayed by many of the joint-stock companies then working
in the mines, and the liberality of the shareholders was equalled
by the generous voluntary gifts of their employés. Private
individuals were not behind in their gifts, and the ladies of Kim-
berley organised a grand bazaar, which produced nearly £1,000.
The Colonial Government provided free of cost sufficient bricks
for the building, and, in addition, £6,000 was spent in building and
furnishing. Practically every foot of the stand which the com-
mittee had secured had been utilised for the building, but by a
fortunate chance it was found possible to secure the adjacent
stand, which was immediately laid out as a little garden, and thus
was added to the Library one of its greatest present charms-the
little spot of green lawn beneath the shady trees, centred by the
sundial, upon whose open book each day the sun records the pas-
sing hours, which perish and yet are recorded, as the inscription
aptly sets forth.
In its new home the Library grew by leaps and bounds, both in
its contents and in the use that was made of them. The prosperous
years of the town provided ample funds for the acquisition of a
most valuable collection of books, in the selection of which the
committee received invaluable aid from the Hon. P. M. Laurence,
LL.D., its chairman. Many other past and present citizens gave
up much time to the gradual building-up of the institution, notably
Mr. Judge, for many years Civil Commissioner of Kimberley, and
Mr. Craven, Secretary of the De Beers Company. In 1891 great
impulse was given to the usefulness of the Library by the publi-
cation of the first complete printed catalogue of the Library, to the
compilation of which the Judge President had devoted his learned
leisure for many months. This catalogue still remains the main
one of the institution, though it contains only 14,000 out of the
27,000 volumes which the Library now owns, and has been supple-
mented by many additional lists, and by a complete catalogue of
the Library, which is kept on cards in the Reference Room, Lean
years followed the prosperous years, and the number of subscribers
fell off, while only in two years, 1890 and 1891, did the Library
receive £1,000 from subscriptions of its actual users, but the Library
went steadily on accumulating books, and keeping its expenditure
well within its income.
Some interesting gifts to the Library in these years are recorded.
The Compagnie Française presented a large and representative col
4
50
lection of works in the French language, which is still a unique
feature of the Library, receiving annual additions, and which wins
the admiration of every son of France who visits Kimberley, having
won particularly high commendation from the versatile Max
O'Rell on his visit here. Many of the, shareholders in the old
joint-stock Library Company presented their share certificates to
the Library, and upon its final liquidation a very considerable sum
was received for these shares. In 1892 the Library received the
only legacy which it has had during its 20 years of existence.
This was £500 from the estate of the late Mr. John MacFarlane,
and this sum, together with the windfall received from the liquida-
tors of the old company, was invested as the nucleus of an
endowment fund to which year by year has been added the small
surpluses left after the payment of current expenditure. This
fund now amounts to about £7,000, the income from which is a
considerable item in the yearly revenue, and serves as a useful
provision against any sudden shortfall in revenue which might
arise from a drop in subscriptions or other cause.
As the years went by the accumulation of new books went on at
an average annual rate of rather more than 1,000 volumes, and
the Library buildings began to be inconveniently crowded, and it
was found difficult to store accessions as they came in. An exten-
sion fund was opened, and a piece of ground behind the buildings
was secured, thus preserving the pleasant little garden which
otherwise must have been perforce sacrificed to the exigencies of
the situation. The Right Hon. Cecil J. Rhodes, with his customary
liberality toward all schemes for the benefit of the people of Kim-
berley, contributed £2,000 out of the Compound Profits Fund to the
extension, and mainly through the efforts of the senior member for
Kimberley, Mr. James Lawrence, M.L.A., the Colonial Government
gave a special grant of £1,000. The late Mr. Henry Robinow took
a great interest in the scheme, and during a visit Home so repres-
ented the cause of the Library among former residents in Kimber-
ley as to be able to forward a most substantial sum in aid of the
buildings. In all £4,000 was collected, and the Library was
extended by the addition of two large reading-rooms- one especially
adapted for use as a smoking-room, and by the erection of a stack-
room calculated to hold 20,000 volumes on its shelves.
The Library Committee now had a Library of upwards of
24,000 volumes, and many large and well-ventilated rooms, and
they felt that the people of Kimberley, who had practically
built up the Library by their own efforts, entirely without outside
help, were not making as great a use of the institution as they
might do. Of what use to have a fine and well-selected Library
in the town if its contents were only accumulating dust on the
shelves, and if its use were confined to about 300 households ?
Averaging these households at five each, this meant that out of a
total white population of 15,000 only about one-tenth were
making any use of the literary storehouse that the town had
provided for their use. The matter was under consideration by
the committee when the war intervened. The siege of Kimberley
came, and while it was suggested by at least one that the Library
51
should close its doors and bury its books in the ground in case.
the town fall into the hands of the enemy, the Library remained
open at least part of every day of that memorable period. It
provided the books of reference which made it possible that the
drawings of " Long Cecil" could be made, and day by day, when
it was impossible for the town to receive news from the outside
world, it provided from its store of books reading matter to wile
away the weary hours of the besieged.
The siege over, the Library Committee returned to their schemes
for the enlargement of the usefulness of the Library. They did
not wish to be merely the curators and custodians of a collection
of books which should rest unused behind the glass doors of their
cases for some future generation of residents in Kimberley. They
wished the rather that the books in their care should be used
they believed in the provision of books as tools for the community
-tools that would be improved by use, tools that at any rate were
more useful if worn out, than if they were permitted to rust out.
Some slight reductions had been made in the rates of subscrip-
tion, but they practically remained as they were at the establish-
ment of the Library. New rooms had been built, much more
comfortable furniture had been provided-above all, the books had
been multiplied eight times or more, and certainly full value was
being given for the subscription paid, if the comforts and
conveniences of the Library were compared with those of the
libraries in other places. Kimberley had, however, always tried
to lead the way in matters of development. After much delibe-
ration the committee resolved to recommend the subscribers to
make a sweeping reduction in the rates of subscription, and to
throw the institution freely open to all, with one book at a time
for home reading, for a quarterly subscription of 53. or exactly
one-third of the rates when the Library first opened. This
sweeping change was freely criticised by some who visioned the
Library losing revenue, or lamented that the leisured ease and
quiet of the rooms would depart for all time were the proposal
carried. But these prognostications were not justified. Most
appropriately within a few days of announcement that there was
once again Peace in the land, the subscribers at a special meeting,
sanctioned the proposals of the committee, and in the result have
found themselves in the happy position of having extended the
usefulness of the Library by drawing within its sphere of useful-
ness many citizens, while their enlightened policy had added to
their funds. The quiet and leisured ease of the rooms had not
been disturbed because of the new body of subscribers. It is true
that the rooms are more used, and that there is a greater demand
for reading matter, but of what use an institution called & public
library if it be not within the means of all to participate in its
benefits?
As this slight sketch shews, the work which has been done by
the committee of the Public Library has been a remarkable one,
and there is no reason why the good work that has been done in
past years, summarised in the table herewith, may not be more
than equalled in the years that are to come.
52

1883
1884
1885 1886
1887
1888 1889 1890
1891
1892
No. of Subscribers
150
183
197
183
289
310
387
369
301
265
Amount of
Subscriptions.
£350
£472
$523
£502
£680
£836 £1,012 | £1,145
£968
£853
Government Grant.
£200
£200
£300
£300
£300
£300
£300 £600
£600
£300
Borough Council
Grant.
£25
£100
£100
£200
£100
£200
£200
£200
£100
No. of Books
3,000
3,300 4,150
4,306
5,022
7,425 8,272
11,453
14,370 15,539
Annual Circulation.
2,388
5,107
5,894
5,296
5,660 12,348 | 12,781
12,781 18,487
20,306❘ 18,724
Average Daily
Attendance
75
93
142
181
235
234
206
176

53
1893
1894 1895 1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
No. of Subscribers
232
240
272
283
307
327
331
325
350
528
Amount of
Subscriptions
£781
£787
£791
£768
£782
£805
£749
£711
£795
£882
Government Grant..
£300 £350
£350
£350
£350
£350
£350
£350
£350
£400
Borough Council
Grant
£50
£50
£50
£50
£,50
£50
£50
£50
£50 £100
16,678❘ 17,394 18,886 19,876 20,668
21,932 22,729 23,843 24,858 | 26,551
No. of Books
Annual Circulation.. 18,000 20,000 20,193 27,006 31,730 33,203 33,100 26,264 32,688 40,129
Average Daily
Attendance
166
166
173
223
278
285
301
277
400
347


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