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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 12

(No. 5.—Hon. Sec. to Town Clerk.) Dunedin Athenæum and Mechanics' Institute, August 14th, 1868. Town Clerk, Dunedin

(No. 5.—Hon. Sec. to Town Clerk.) Dunedin Athenæum and Mechanics' Institute, August 14th, 1868. Town Clerk, Dunedin,

Sir,

I am in receipt of your favor of yesterday's date, asking "what equivalent or consideration" the Athenæum proposes to give for a site on the Octagon.

page 7

In reply I have to inform you that the equivalent, as set forth in the Resolutions of the Provincial Council forwarded in my previous communication, is that implied in the right of the citizens of Dunedin and the residents of the Province to have free access to the Athenæum Library, at present containing upwards of 5,500 volumes, and being yearly increased at an average rate of from two to three hundred volumes.

It will be seen from the Resolutions that the Provincial Council considered the right above referred to a sufficient equivalent, not only for the transfer of a "free site," but also for a suitable annual subsidy; but should' the City Council be of a different opinion, I presume the question of equivalent will have to be decided as between the Council and the Provincial Government, as, the Government having been applied to to indicate what site would be available in the event of this Institution taking action on the basis of the Provincial Council's Resolutions, have indicated the Octagon site as most desirable, probably thinking the City Council would feel gratified by participating in the satisfaction to be derived from conferring so great a boon upon the inhabitants of the Province.

I have, &c., (Signed)

Chas. Smith

, Hon. Sec.