The Concert Chamber.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19180, 10 December 1927, Page 14

The Concert Chamber.

Complaint is made by a correspondent to-day that the proposed charges for the use of the Municipal Concert Chamber are too low. He estimates that the revenue from the letting of the Chamber will not amount to more than £SO 8s a week at the outside—a sum which, totalling £2620 for the year, is insufficient to pay the interest, £3250 (at 64 per cent.), on the £50,000 which the Chamber will have cost. If these figures are correct, or even nearly correct, they mean that the ratepayers will be called upon to pay a subsidy to the users of the Chamber—a subsidy amounting to more than the difference between £3250 and £2620, because there will be charges for caretaking, cleaning, lighting, heating, insurance, depreciation, and maintenance. There is no reason why the ratepayers should subsidise visiting theatrical or concert companies, oir even local mugical societies. Nobody has expected the ratepayers to do so hitherto, and nobody can justify their being asked to do so now. If the Concert Chamber is to be run at a loss through the charging of nndulj

low renting fees, an injustice will be done, not only to the ratepayers, but to the societies owning other halls that are let for theatrical and concert performances. The fact that the City owns the Chamber does not relieve the City authorities of the duty of making it pay its way.