Our Local Bands.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 243, 22 October 1901, Page 3

Our Local Bands.

(To the Editor of the Times.)

{sitr., —It was with a feeling of great ctis>a- i refaction that T read the notion of the i officers of the Poverty Bay Turf Uub having again engaged the services of a ; perepatetie band, composed of foreigners, as against our own townsmen. As is well known, tve have two bands, which are a credit to the district, the members cheerfully giving their services in any , charitable or patriotic object, and often | render a verv enjovable open-air concert. Kow. sir, I beg to submit that when an ( occasion'arises'that a paid band is required (especially bv an institution that relies on j the public to put money in its coffers) j that our local men should be chosen in j preference to a lot of strolling foreigners. The members of our bands are mostly mechanics, and cannot afford to lose two day’s work and give their services for nothing, especially as it takes a good part of their earnings to live as a Britisher should live ; ' whereas the wandering Italian can manage to rub along with a handful of maccaroni and au onion for his daily sustenance. The patriotism which was"displayed bv some of the members ot the Racing Club a year or so back seems to have entirely disappeared. Local talent should be encouraged, and not the Cosmopolitans who are here to-day and gone tomorrow. —I am, etc., Henry Cannon.