CHAUTAUQUA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4373, 3 February 1922, Page 2

CHAUTAUQUA.

Sir,—l am not a guarantor of the association that has just patronised us by the visit of its lecturers and entertainers, therefore I may be given the credit of criticising some things from no interested motive. We had been given to-"understand that this association has as its object the social and education advancement of the- Dominion by conducting Chautauquas consisting of meetings and entertainers and musical" artists of ability. I do not wish to say much about the lecturers except that ho one of them reached anything like a top notch standard and one or two of them would do very much, better with but a few elementary lessons in elocution. The principal impression left by them, with one exception, was that nothing original or new was said, much American bobsting was attempted through a very distasteful appeal to what they wrongly thought was our susceptibilities, and in one case T think the impression was of mucn thunder and a lot of very.hot air.

However, I would especially remark upon .the musical programme. With the possible exception of two or three .artists everything was very secondrate and would not; have had creditable comment at any suburban concert of the larger cities of the world of the singing items could have been equalled or bettered by our own talent, and generally it could not be considered as promoting either social or educational advancement. But, sir, what I wish most to protest against is the insult levelled by the artists of each of the ‘last two days, and especially in the afternoons, at.their audiences. It was all too apparent that we were considered to be so la;ck-i ing in musical discrimination that no attempt was really made to even keep in tune. It was the lamest attempt at a concert that I have-ever witnessed. I recognise that the weather was at its worst and, consequently, there were not, many present, but for this we were complimented when the programme commenced. I also acknowledge that the stage was a little dark and the piano was not in tune, but this wps no reason for unaccompanied quartettes being out of tune, and I for one went to hear the items and had no Wish to see the paint on a man’s face or the wig he wore. Besides all this the artists were so lacking in the finer courtesies due to an audiehce that their jocular and light treatment of their'iterns resulted in throat spasms and breakdowns while polish and finish was conspicuous l by its absence.

. Sir, we may nht be a great community, but some of us have travelled and most of us know the reaJly good from the make-believe, and the, conclusion is that we have been again “Yankeed” with the latter. DISGUSTED.