ound pamphlets is large and comprehensive, especially in the latter
department. The interior arrangements of the Library struck us as being
particularly excellent, affording ample and accessible room for the
books, besides all needed table accommodations for the use of the
public. In this respect the Library was far in advance of our Boston
institution, and is hardly surpassed by the Astor Library in New York.
As to the Melbourne building, inside and out, it is superior to both of
the libraries we have named in architectural effect. Under the same roof
is a Technological Museum containing an extensive collection, especially
of geological specimens, mainly comprised of those found in Australia.
For entomologists and mineralogists the collection here exhibited will
present also special interest. An entire wing upon the lower floor of
the building--the library proper being up one flight of stairs--is
devoted to statuary and to a public school of art. A third department is
appropriated to a permanent exhibition of paintings. Here may be seen
many choice modern pictures and some admirable copies from the old
masters. All these departments come under the direction of the managers
of the Library, and all are free to the public. Over one hundred persons
were counted at the reading-tables of the Library during our brief
visit. There were representatives among them of all classes of citizens,
from the professional student in search of special information, to the
laboring man seeking to improve himself by acquiring general knowledge.
Many of these readers were clearly from a station in life that would
furnish them no access to such books except for this public provision.
What an admirable arrangement it is that here affords to the humblest
well-behaved person books, shelter, warmth, and light, from ten in the
morning until ten at night, free of all charge or onerous conditions! It
is the multiplication of such facilities for culture and
self-improvement which so emphasizes the real meaning of the words
_civilization_ and _progress_. This is a grand missionary work in the
right direction. Now let the managers of the Melbourne Public Library
open the doors of their institution on Sundays, and thus add to the
usefulness of this noble benefaction.

Melbourne has its Chinese Quarter, like Sydney and San Francisco; it is
situated in Little Burke Street, just back of the Theatre Royal, and
forms a veritable China-Town with its joss-house,