HOW THE BAND WERE TREATED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1182, 9 December 1913, Page 3

HOW THE BAND WERE TREATED.

STATEMENT AND DENIAL

At last night’s Council meeting the following letter was read from the secretary ot the Borough Band addressed to the Town Clerk: “I have been instructed by the committee of the Borough Band to write to you contradicting the statement made to the effect that the members of the band were forced by you to accept Monday night, November 10th, for their concert and thai they were in no way influenced by you or the Borough Council in their choice of nights. The committee wish me to kindly thank you and your Council for the way in which you helped us with our concert. Hoping this will clear up any misunderstanding. Yours etc.” In an explanation in connection with the above letter the Town Clerk said that when evidence was being taken recently by the Statutes Revision Committee of the Legislative Council in connection with the clause in the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act giving power to local bodies to conduct picture entertainments, Mr Hamer in his evidence bad stated that the Foxlou Borough Council had on various occasions refused to hire the hall to people requiring it on the ground that it was required ter pictures. When asked to give specific instances Mr Hamer had stated that during the previous week the Horticultural Society had been refused the use of the building on the Wednesday. Under further questioning, Mr Hamer subsequently said that it was the previous year that the Society had been refused the use of the building. He also stated before the Committee that the Borough Band had been forced by the Town CJerk to take the hall for their concert on Monday night rotfc—a night upon which he held a picture show, and had been refused it for another night. The Town Clerk said this statement was contrary to fact and that upon returning from Wellington he bad interviewed the band members and all of them, including Mr Hamer’s son, stated that in the choice of nights for their conceit they had bad a perfectly free band and bad chosen Monday of their own accord. It was to clear up this matter that the Band had forwarded the letter.