Library Notes and News. 123 and decided, that the Public Libraries Act, 1892, be adopted and come into operation in the Urban district of Redruth, on ist of May next. It was also decided that the resolution arrived at on the subject be advertised in two local papers, and that posters be affixed to the churches and chapels, and at such other places as bills are usually posted. SALFORD. THE PEEL PARK MUSEUM: PROPOSED SPECIAL RATE. The ordinary business was preceded by a special meeting of the Council, as the Urban Sanitary Authority for the urban sanitary district of the county borough of Salford, at which Alderman Makinson (chairman of the Museum, &c., Committee) moved .-"That this Council, acting as the Urban Sanitary Authority, under the Public Health Acts, for the urban sanitary district of the county borough of Salford, and being the urban authority designated in the Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891, pursuant to powers conferred on them therein, resolve to adopt and hereby adopt the said Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891, for and within the said district of the said county borough, so far as relates to museums only." The object of this motion, he said, was to enlarge the scope, and extend the usefulness of the museum and libraries. All the public libraries throughout the country came under the ordinary Libraries Act ; but the Act of 1891 was not a libraries Act, but one which simply referred to museums, providing for obtaining certain privileges which a corporation that had museums and libraries did not enjoy. Hitherto the Peel Park Museum had been sharing, unfortunately, in the id. rate for parks and libraries, a circumstance which he and others regarded as an injustice ; and as the Act would enable them to separate the two and charge a special museum rate of one half-penny, he thought it desirable to do so. The Act, if applied, would enable them to give a penny rate to parks and libraries, and a half-penny rate to the museum. If this motion were passed it would not be necessary, he thought, to come to the Council for money which they had authorised to be given in connection with the forthcoming exhibition. The resolution was carried by 38 votes to 16 ; the Mayor (Alderman W. H. Bailey) and Alderman Bowes speaking strongly in favour of the motion. SOUTHAMPTON. The Southampton School Board have decided to approach the Free Libraries Committee " with a view to the estab- lishment of juvenile libraries in connection with the Board Schools." The advantage of having a good well-selected library in connection with a school must be generally admitted, especially where the teachers take an interest in the work of guiding the reading of their scholars into useful channels. Several of the schools in Southampton have libraries attached to them, and many of the Sunday Schools of the town also possess large collections of books suitable for juvenile reading. The opinion has been placed on record by H.M. Inspectors of schools that in schools where libraries are provided the intelligence of the scholars is of a higher and more practical character than in schools where a library does not exist. A school library ought to be worked so as to furnish the scholars with just that kind of reading, and just so much of it, as will be useful to them in quickening their intelligence and increasing their general knowledge. When it is made to serve that purpose, only good results will follow. A school library will not be a success unless the teachers take a living interest in it. The question here is whether a scheme of school libraries can be worked in connection with the Free Library Committee. That is done in Leeds and some other towns with very good results. It resolves itself into a question
