BAND MUSIC IN OXFORD STREET

Chronicle (Levin), 4 December 1947, Page 4

BAND MUSIC IN OXFORD STREET

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Sir,r-Witli due regard to the Mayor and his council, I cannot understand the lack of thought used recently in deciding to make the Municipal Band play in the Regent Hall on Friday night. The reason for this move was given as an obfection on the paft of the police- and the Transport Department officei". Is it not the recognised privilege. of a band to use the street .when playing out in public? ■ All over New Zealand the bands are either provided with} a stand In a suitable place, or given the use of the street. On Friday night, when the band was playing in the hall, together with a friend, I measured the distance at which it was- .possible to hear the music issuing from the four or five small windows in' the building. I found that at 50 yards nothing could be heard. At 30 yards it was possible to hear an indistinct, jumbled cacophony. . Only at 20 yards could one hear clearly and appreciate the particular march which was being played.

Inside the ha-Il was a different matter. The noise resounded from all parts of the room. As I went up the stairs it was like walking into a solid wall of sou-nd. The thud of the drum and the lowertuned instruments came back at a slower rate than the higher pitched pieces. How the bandsmen kept in time and concentrated on their music is nothing short of miraeulous. Perhaps someone would care to give the public an explanation of what the trouble with the police was-, and why it happened. I arxi sure that had they been approached in the correct rhanner they would have had no obj ection to a portion of the street being roped off, or whatever decision complied with the wishes of both parties. There seems to be in Levin a lack of co- operation and public spiritedness which is so essential to a progresSive town. Then again, after going to the trouble of installing a special light on one portion of the main street, why was it necessary to put the -band in the hall when a place had already been prepared for it? In the open air it is possible to hear the band the full length of the main stfeet. There is no need for a large crowd to gather on the road. After all, the band belongs to the people of this town. It is to them that the band looks lor funds. In short it is a municipal band. It is always expected to provide entertainment at any large gathering of the public. At race meetings, sports meetings and services,_ or open air congregations of any kind, all music is provided free, because it is Levin's own band. Why should the council be allowed to put it out of the way and let the men to play to themselves/ under conditions which no -other town would endure? Yours etc.,

Levin, Dec. 2.