AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2336, 18 December 1914, Page 6

AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS

PRESENTATION TO MR. ROBERT : PARKER. Laet evening's concert marked the termination of the twenty-first year of the 'Wellington LiedertafePs work under the baton of Mr. Robert Parker, and to mark,tho event ho ; was presented with a handsome silver-mounted baton, silver ink-well with a greenstone base, and a greenstone pen, which was also, mounted'in silver. In making the presentation, Mr. F. V. Waters said, that he did so with mingled plensure and regret. He had been selected to make the presentation as he happened to be the sole one there who had sung in the firstconcert given by the Liedertafel. They had, he continued,, pursued their course with zest. .' They had never sung, rubbish, or, if they had, it was during an interval when their artistio perception Was blunted. He thought the Liedertafel could take credit for having done good work, and - the fact that the society was. twenty-one years old pointed to its having been a success. And for that twenty-one years the Liedertafel had been' under..tho direction of Mr. Robert Parker'. If there was one who stood ;in his own light and would riot advertise himself it was Mr. Parker— (applause)—and he had very great pleasure in asking him to accept tho presents (enumerated above) with the best wishes of the members of tho Liedertafel. : Applause long and hearty followed Mr. Waters's remarks, and the Liedertafel sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" without the. aid of a baton, and gave three cheers for their well-loved conductor. .At a later moment after an amusing dissertation on the evils of encores, Mr. Parker thanked Mr. Waters for the kind' things he had -said and his true and loyal friends of the Liedertafel for the beautiful presents they had given him. It was with regret and pleasure that he acknowledged that ho had been twenty-one years the conductor of the Liedertafel, but that term paled into insignificance before his services to St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, with which he had been connected for thirty-six years without a break. Still, twenty-one years was a long period of existence for a musical body in New Zealand. It certainly was in Wellington. There were new generations of young people who knew little or nothing of the history of music in .Wellington. He often noticed in the papers remarks about the first performance in Wellington of a work, and said to himself: "Let me see—l think we did that here in 1879" —before the writers of tho paragraphs were born. (Laughter.) As Mr. Waters had said, he was tho only original member of the Liedertafel still amongst them, and ho had always been a faithful and loyal help. It was with pleasure that he saw there some of the old members, who through old age and infirmities had not continued with them. (Laughter.) There woro Mr. Douglas Jackson, Mr. J. A. Plimmer, and Mr. Wilson. He had hoped to arrange a di» monstration in honour of the greyheaded singers, but owing to the circumstances' attendant upon the war they had just invitou a few old friends in order that they might sustain the thread of tho continuous work of the society. He was deeply conscious of his fortune in the friends he had made, and appreciated the friendship of all those who had stood by him so loyallyi (Applause.),