The losses range from over 20 to 5 per cent., and thus a considerable limit is placed upon the book-purchasing power of a large number of libraries. =28. Unexpended Balances.=--In some places the local authority has appropriated unexpended balances of the public library rate and applied them to other local purposes. This action is clearly illegal, and could only have been taken by those who are ignorant of the decisions of the Local Government Board on the point. It is true the Acts do not specify how unexpended balances of the library rate are to be dealt with, but it is equally true that as the money was raised under a special Act for a strictly defined purpose, it cannot be diverted to any other purpose, nor can it be carried forward as a portion of the library rate for a succeeding year. No doubt the wording of the Act is responsible for the interpretation which has been put upon the section entitled “Limitations on expenditure for purpose of Act.” It reads: “A rate or addition to a rate shall not be levied for the purposes of this Act for any one financial year in any library district to an amount exceeding one penny in the pound.” The Local Government Board have decided that any unexpended balances of the library income must be carried forward to next year’s library account, without prejudice to the next year’s library income. This decision has been upheld by all the district auditors of the Local Government Board, and it is difficult to understand the reason why a few places still cling to the belief that the library rate can be further limited by this illegal procedure of appropriating unexpended balances. Committees who are threatened with this action can always protect themselves against the injustice by taking care that there are no balances to appropriate; but it will prevent them from saving a little money for necessary book purchases, cleaning or other purposes. It should be pointed out, furthermore, that the section of the Act above quoted does not really refer to the total _amount_ to be raised by rate in a given year, but only to the _poundage_ or rate which may be charged for library purposes, namely, not more than a penny in the pound. The question of the _product_ of this rate of a penny is not mentioned anywhere in the Acts, and it is this lack of clear definition--the failure to distinguish the amount of a rate from the total amount which it will produce annually--which is responsible for many of the difficulties hitherto met with in administering the Libraries Acts.