SUNDAY CONCERTS AND RESERVED SEATS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1503, 27 July 1912, Page 6

SUNDAY CONCERTS AND RESERVED SEATS.

Trouble is brewing between the Wellington Professional Orchestra and the City Council on tho subject of reserving seats m the Town Hall fer concerts given on Sunday evenings. It appears that tho Professional Orchestra, which gives concerts on certain Sunday evenings during tho winter months, has a list of contributors, mostly music enthusiasts, who pay an annual subscription, the sum total of which Mps to keep tho orchestra going, and without which, it is stated, tho orchestra, as at present constituted, could not exist. It has been the custom both this winter and last to reservo a block of peats—not individual seats—for th«se subscribers, who naturally look for somo such accommodation in return for tho support given. Objection has'been (alien to tho reservation of these seats by till© officials of the Oity Council, and after an interview between the Town Clerk and tine officials of the orchestra, instructions have been given to the caretaker (Mr. L?slic) to roe that no Boats are withhold from tho public whatsoever. In this plight the officials of the orchestra nfp asking all contributors (0 bo in (heir scab by 8 p.m. to-morrow (half an hour beforo the concert commences) in ordi?.r to comply as far as possible with tho council's demands.

It is held by tho officials of tho orchestra that they have lxvn i?iven the right to resorvo seats in blocks in the .past, and (flint if tliioy pay the rent it is ((heir oon-oo-ii how they allocate the scats as loiur as there are unreserved scats for the public. They quote a precedent that Hie London County Council permits tho reservation of efats for Sunday concerts at the Queen's and AJliert Hall, end that there is no legitimate reason why. seats should not be reserved on their case, seeins; that Hie life of the orchestra de]x?nds wry materially upon whom they wisli (0 reserve tho fcata for. They also Doint out that, as:the average con'trihution i?i\-en at the doors docs not amount to ,"d. per head, that they are piving (ho public Rood music on terms which' they probiibly would not cot in any other part of the world. A deputation is to wait upon Hie council.