"In 1890, out of a rate of one penny in the £, they maintained the Central Reference Library and three branch libraries, the Art Gallery, and the Museum. To-day, with the rate of a penny three-farthings, they maintained three greatly enlarged central institutions, ten lending libraries and reading-rooms, and gave 186 free lectures. They were now completing the erection of a library at Garston, and had secured the land for a library at Walton. The encouraging result of the system of free access to open bookshelves in the Picton and the branch reading-rooms induced him to hope that the new library at Walton might be entirely run upon this principle. They had also done a great deal to encourage juvenile readers and with most gratifying and encouraging results. Juvenile libraries and reading-rooms were provided, and free lectures to the young formed an important branch of their work. They had been very much helped by the handsome gifts made by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the collection of fine art books and prints made by the late Mr. Hugh Frederick Hornby, to whose generosity they were indebted for the room in which they were now displayed--and the 978 books in the Braille type contributed by Miss Hornby, of Walton. "The growth of the Natural History Museum had been remarkable. Liverpool received as a bequest from the 13th Earl of Derby a very large collection of natural history specimens, which was enriched from time to time by other gifts. The limited space in the Museum was choked by specimens which could not be properly displayed or scientifically arranged, and the greater part of the specimens remained stowed away in cases in the cellars. In 1899 it was decided to greatly extend the museum by building further galleries over the new Technical Schools. This extension cost £80,000. This additional space had been entirely filled by the zoological collections, which had been most carefully and scientifically arranged by the director, Dr. Forbes, and they now only awaited the completion of the descriptive catalogue to make this department complete and worthy of its high reputation.