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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Libraries, Galleries And Baths

Libraries, Galleries And Baths.

By an ordinance passed in 1864 the Education Board was authorised to assist in the formation of public and school libraries, by subsidising to the extent of £ for £ any district or town that chose to raise subscriptions for such a purpose. This public library scheme was so successful as to attract much attention from strangers and visitors to the colony. The last report published by the Education Board unders the old provincial system shows that, up to 1875, there were eighty-eight public libraries connected with the Board—seventeen public libraries with reading rooms attached, sixty-three public district libraries, and eight purely school libraries. The influence of this system has been in the highest degree beneficial to the settlers in the more remote parts of the province. The Otago Education Report for 1872 says: “The public library books are not only to be seen in the more comfortable and accessible dwellings in the settled districts. It is not an uncommon thing to find recently published books of a high class bearing the Board's stamp upon them in the shepherd's solitary abode among the hills, and in the digger's hut in gullies accessible only by mountain bridle tracks.”

In addition to the libraries thus formed, the Education Board has assisted many public institutions, hospitals, and gaols in the purchase of books, and the Dunedin Athenaeum has thus received valuable aid. But Dunedin city itself has little to boast of in this respect. The Athenaeum is a subscription library, and though moderately well patronised, it will bear no comparison in size or practical utility with the splendid institutions available for the reading public in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. The original Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1851 by the Rev. Mr. Burns and Mr. Macandrew. But the present Athenaeum, which superseded the older institution, dates from 1859. The library is maintained entirely by private subscription, and is managed by a committee of twelve appointed by subscribers. It contains both reference and circulating departments. There are nearly 21,000 books in the two departments. The membership numbers nearly 1000, and the annual revenue of the institution is over £1000. A movement has been set on foot for the foundation of a Free Library, and an appeal was once made to Mr. Carnegie for assistance page 47 in this direction. But it is a distinct reflection upon the public spirit of Dunedin citizens that steps have not long since been taken to provide for a reference and circulating library, in some way commensurate with the needs of a wealthy and well educated community.

The Museum is contained in the buildings of the Otago University, and is managed by the governing body of that institution. The collection, which formed the nucleus of the Museum, was begun by Dr Hector for the Dunedin Exhibition of 1865. In 1868 the specimens were allotted house room in the Old University buildings in Princes Street, and £100 a year was voted towards the extension of the collection. In 1873 the Provincial Council granted £500 a year to its support, and this was increased in 1875 to £600 a year. The foundations of the building in Great King Street were laid in 1874. The structure and fittings cost about £12,500, and the Museum was thrown open to the public in August, 1877. In the same year a Bill was passed by the General Assembly transferring the control of the institution to the Otago University Council.

The plan of the original building was sufficiently comprehensive. The south wing is intended for the New Zealand collection, and includes an aquarium; the north wing was meant for the technological and ethnological department, with a section for geology and mineralogy. The main hall was meant for foreign Natural History collection. The Museum contains class rooms, a Natural Science laboratory, and a valuable library. The directors have wisely endeavoured to specialise the collection in certain definite directions, and the Museum, though it represents other branches of science, is distinctly a zoological museum. It is arranged on a neat and methodical system, and ranks high among the natural history collections in the southern world.

Statue of Robert Burns: Octagon, Dunedin. Armstrong. photo.

Statue of Robert Burns: Octagon, Dunedin. Armstrong. photo.

One portion of the Museum buildings is devoted to a Public Art Gallery. The collection originated in the purchase of a number of the pictures shown at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin in 1890, and the gallery is now maintained by public subcription. There are seventy-five pictures in the gallery, the work of English, European and colonial artists. Of these pictures, fifty are in oils, and twenty-five in water colours. In addition to these there is on view a collection of photographs with some engravings and lithographs. Twenty-five of the pictures, and nearly all the photographs, belong to the Otago Art Society; but the rest of the contents of the gallery are public property vested in trustees. On the whole, though limited in size, the collection is one of which the city is justly proud, and which cannot fail to excrcise an important influence upon its culture and artistic tastes.

From an early period of the city's history the municipal authorities appear to have turned their attention towards the question of public baths. But their first attempts in this direction do not seem to have met with general approval. The author of the historical sketch in “Picturesque Dunedin” writes on this subject as follows: “The ridiculous efforts made by the combined wisdom of the councillors in making provision in this behalf, culminated in the baths at Logan's Point; the waters of which are credited with containing a good admixture of city drainage.” It was not till the end of 1884 that the Corporation baths at Pelichet Bay were formally opened. On the salt water baths at St. Clair, which continue to be the most popular bathing resort of the citizens of Dunedin and its suburbs. The popularity of salt water bathing led further to the establishment of the Victoria Baths in Frederick Street, in 1894; and, generally speaking, Dunedin enjoys facilities for public bathing and swimming at least equal to those of any other city in the colony.