County Libraries

Tasmania.-Only

Hobart (Tasmanian Public library, had in 1925 used the large powers given by the act of 1867.

New Zealand.-In

New Zealand there are 13 public libraries, established under acts dating from 1869 to 5877, which allow a penny rate. At Auckland the Turnbull Free Public library (188o) has Sir George Grey's Australasian collection and many rare books (140,000 vols.), Christchurch, vols.) and Wellington, 1893, are the next largest. Wellington has the General Assembly library. The university library of Otago, Dunedin, 1872, is the chief academic library.

India and the East.-The

chief library in India is the Imperial library at Calcutta (15 2,00o vols.). At Calcutta the Sanskrit college has 1,652 printed Sanskrit vols. and 4,00o Sanskrit mss., and many Jain mss. ; Madras University library has a new and handsome building. The library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was founded in 1784 (35,00o vols. and 20,000 mss.). The Geo logical Survey's library has 50,000 vols.

The Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1804) has oo,000 printed vols. and 2,000 mss. The Moolla Feroze library (bequeathed 1831) is chiefly of mss., in Arabic and Persian. There are libraries attached to Elphinstone college and the Universities of Allahabad and Lahore (54,000 vols. each), Dacca (46,000 vols.), and Bombay (1864, 35,00o vols., including the Fawcett Economic library). The library of Tippoo Sahib, consisting of 2.000 mss., fell into the hands of the British (catalogue 1809).

Perhaps the most remarkable library in India is that of the raja of Tanjore, which dates from the end of the 16th or be ginning of the 17th century. There are now about 18,000 mss. written in Devanagari, Nandinagari, Telugu. Kannada, Granthi, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi, or Kashmiri, and Uriya; 8,000 are on palm leaves. Dr. Burnell's printed catalogue describes 12,375 articles.

The Royal Asiatic Society has branches, with libraries attached, in many of the large cities of India and the Far East. At Rangoon there are several good libraries. The Raffles library at Singapore collects books relating to the Malayan peninsula and archipelago. In Ceylon there :s the Museum library at Colombo (1877, with 15,000 vols.). The All-India Public Library Association, formed in 1923 to spread the public library movement throughout India, by means of provincial library associations, a quarterly journal, periodical conferences, the issue of pamphlets, and the training of librarians. In Baroda, Travancore, Pudukottai and Mysore the

State helps liberally, and the movement has made progress. In British India hardly any Government help is forthcoming, save for libraries under State management in capital cities.

Palestine.-The

chief library is the Hebrew National and Uni versity library (1925), 136,00o vols., which contains the Gold zieher Hebrew and Klein mathematical collections, and publishes a quarterly review, Kiryath sefer.

Canada.-The

most important public library is that of Toronto (1883), which has over 400,000 vols., and includes a notable children's department in a separate building, and which compiles the annual Canadian Catalogue of new books since 1921-22 (pub lished 1923) ; the central reference building was, in 1928, about to be rebuilt.

There were in 1909, 413 public libraries described as 131 free and 234 not free. The other most important libraries in Ontario are:-Queen's university, Kingston (1841), 150,000 vols., rich in Canadian history; Library of Parliament, Ottawa, about 300,000 vols., Legislative Library of Ontario, Toronto (1867), about 150,000 vols.; University of Toronto (1856), 220,000 vols. and 77,00o pamphlets.

In the province of Quebec, there are several large and impor tant libraries, among which may be mentioned the Fraser institute, Montreal (1885), 103,000 vols. ; McGill university, Montreal (1855), 268,000 vols., comprising many important collections; the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Montreal, about 223,00o vols.; Laval university, Quebec, 173,00o vols.; and the Library of the Legis lature (1792).

In the province of British Columbia, under an act of 1919, a public library commission governs the six public libraries, 23 "public library associations," and 386 travelling libraries, and in 1928 was surveying the system (Report for 1926-27).

In Nova Scotia there is a system of circulating books among the school libraries. The Legislative library at Halifax incor porates that of the Nova Scotia Historical Society (1878). The school law of New Brunswick provides for grants to school libraries; in the West Indian islands, the Institute of Jamaica, Kingston (1879) and the Trinidad Public library (1841) should be mentioned. (X. ; A. Es.)