BACK HOME AGAIN—BROKE!

NZ Truth, Issue 1107, 17 February 1927, Page 6

BACK HOME AGAIN— BROKE!

Bothered By Bad Business During Disastrous World Tour

iniiiiiiiuiiiininiiimriiiiniHiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiimininiiiitniiiniiiiiiiHMiiiiiimiiiiiiinninniiniiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiuiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiniiiiiiniiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiniiin luuim^muiiiiiifiimiiiHiMuiiiiJUumiiiii!^ || (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Christchurch Representative.) jjl If A long, long trail of debts right across Canada, a conduct- |( || or complaining that his director of publicity held the || ff pistol to his head to force his consent to extortionate de- || 1 1 mands, the director of publicity declaring that his personal |f || bond of honor to the Canadian Pacific Railway company, || ll not to mention his reputation, was m danger of being shat- |j •|| tered beyond repair, and the "best band m the world" yoy- ll [| aging back to New Zealand on tick, with financial failure ff if and bitter acrimony as the grand climax to a word tour! |f |1 Such is the sorry tale of the Australian Commonwealth fl |1 Silver Band, under the baton of Albert Henry Baile. fl

y •■_ _ ITH a millstone of J^Sb^KJ^^^SJ debt round its 4_^SlJ^_*'W^__Y[ men — it is alleged ' Villi M W J»l» ,/ tune of £700 m j^^^Jm| wages, and witli " >c*S?u NBV&8&7 the conductor, and ' /Jj Y_\ \\ > licity at daggers (^L %Hf y^y - drawn, the . band ' ' «i7W'*'esgfl'W'^V>§ arrived back m ti i~ 'mi New Zealand. . Matters soon canae to a head.^Herbert Gladstone Hill;Vthe publicity man, a New Zealander arid the conductor of the Waikato regimental band/was BackedVby Baile and the sequel was heard by Magistrate Young, of Christchurch, wlio awarded Hill £56 Is. as a salve for his troubles. So ended the tour. ;.' If ever a world tour ended disastrously that of the Australian band did. From a financial point of view it was a complete fiasco and the . trouble over money that worried Hill's life from morning till night did not proV mote the harmony off the platform that was such a feature of the musical work of the combination. Not that there was any open antagonism between Baile and his publicity man, who was invariably "on ahead." " All 'were m the same boat and it was a case of sink or swim together. But now that the Canadian nightmare is nothing but a memory— if a vivid oner-the principal actors have had -time ''to collect their thoughts and formulate their impressions of each other. ■'.: • V. Those impressions /orivhoth sides are anything but complimentary, and during the' hearing of ; the- case some very hard arid bitter things were said. Matters came to a head when the band Was m Blenheim a week or two back. FINANCIAL FIASCO Contrary to Baile's instructions, Hill— lnstead of going south and finalising arrangements at Timaru and Dunedin-^-went up to Blenheim. , :He met Baile on the . station and # when the pair got outside Hill was told that heVwas under 'notice; when he reached Christchurch later he received confirmation of the faGt that his services w;ould •be no longer, required. This, Hill said, was a breach of his Canadian agreement. \ % ■ .'■ That, was the spark that set the whole outfit alight. Hill's" reply to the sack was to institute proceedings against Baile, claiming £148, made up as follows^ Three months' salary m lieu of notice (£130), less £75 14s. 7d. already paid; expenses, £47: 2s; ;V and salary : at the rate of £10 per week from January 2 to February- 4. • The .case created considerable interest and when: Lawyer Thomas open- l

ed for Hill there was a big gallery to watch the proceedings. The whole sorry story of the tour was told m detail, and at times there were some lively exchanges between counsel and witnesses. Lawyer Hunter, who appeared for Baile, precipitated a scene with opposing 'counsel when challenging certain documents, drawing from. Lawyer Thomas the angry, retort that he would not tolerate such impertinence. A DAY OF SURPRISES It was a day of surprises, acrimonious exchanges and at times "personalities" from both sides. It was, on October 9, 1925, that the Australian Commonwealth Silver Band was formed m. Sydney. Vernon Beacroft, Baile's co-partner m the band, had previously gone to New Zealand to see about engaging a man named White for the job of publicity director. .•'■..... White could not accept and finally the position was; accepted by Hill, whose salary was to be £10 per week plus all expenses. The idea was that the band was to tour New Zealand, South Africa, England, Canada and the United -States arid then back home. Hill's job was to go ahead of the band arid make all the necessary arrangements about engagements and so on. . Nothing startling happened until the band reached Canada. Hill complained that he had to leave England to open the Canadian and i American tour with the magnificent sum of £30 and that he had to wait several weeks after arrival until he received any more. He also complained that he had only a matter of vfive weeks m which to make the necessary arrangements — far too short a period m which te do anything effective m the way of publicity. When the band finally reached Toronto, Hill realised that they were "gone" without a feather to fly with. The band was properly up against it. The Canadian tour had been disastrous. The opening night m Montreal was a very poor one, and the same story was told at almost every town visited. BENEVOLENT C.P.R. Meanwhile Hill reckoned he must do what he could to straighten things out and raise the cloud of impecuniosity that hung like a fog about the band. Thus it came about that when the musicians reached Toronto something had to be done about it all. - So Hill placed all his cards on, the table' when he went to see. the C.P.R. He told thie official all there was to be known about the poverty-stricken state of affairs and got a very good hearing. The result of those conversations

was an agreement that was drawn up whereby the C.P.R. undertook to advance enough cash to enable the band to get as far as Vancouver. ''I became personally responsible for that money — some £1300 — and under the agreement I was to assume the position of financial manager to the band and render an account of the position to the C.P.R. periodically," said Hill. But any prospects there wer.e of- recouping the finances on" the rest of the tour — and thus enabling the C.P.R. to secure payment of the debt — went by the board. There was nothing doing anywhere. Every time the band took the platform it did so to poor business and things went from bad to worse. The harassed publicity man complained that he had never been given any statements, as to the receipts of the band and did not know what the actual position was: A man named Stewart had secured m Canada contracts for the band amount-

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ing to 20,000 dollars and there was an- | other 20.000 dollars' wor.th pending. The idea was that jthe band was to return to Canada next year, fulfil its engagements and pay the debt to the C.P.R. m full. In the meantime, Hill saw little chance of such a tour being undertaken, and he says he was very much upset about being unable to discharge his moral obligations as an honest and an honorable man, to the band's benefactors and friends — the C.P.R. Of course, the C.P.R. is not a philanthropic institution by any means. The company did what it could to help, having an eye on increased business by transporting ■ the organisation through Canada on a future occasion. Hill declared that he had not had

the assistance from Baile with regard to the statements of takings that he should have had under the agreement. The tour through Canada,' was under the control of the C.P.R., and Hill was appointed under the agreement to act on their behalf. As showing to what extent he was committed m honor /to discharge the obligations to the C.P.R., Hill read a letter which he had sent to Vernon Beacroft. ACCEPTED HIS WORD In that epistle he unburdened himself of some home-truths about the dilatory manner m which his letters asking for funds to carry on the advanced publicity campaign had been answered. Referring to the agreement -with the C.P.R., Hill wrote: "Mr. Niven, who has had control of all our business, is now at Toronto, and I have to see him and tell him what you decide re their position. "Niven has agreed to accept wy word as to the possibility of your making prompt or otherwise payjnent of the steamer credit. "As I told you before, it is a personal matter, and therefore you must send me each -week just what you can afford until the amount is liquidated. I have signed nothing on behalf of the band, so "you can see how they have; trusted me, "You must remember that- 1 placed all my cards on the table with the C.P.R. m order to obtain this credit. If I hadn't I would not have got it. Now they believe m me and what I have told them." I Hill was so worried about the ! whole business, and about the debt of honor to which he had bound I himself on behalf of the band, that he feared a breakdown m health I through worry. He concluded his letter with ratherI a pitiful passage. "I want you and Bert (the conductor) not to v think that there is anything personal v m what I hav§s said. There isn't," he wrote. "I am not satisfied with our business management, therefore o ! must say so and seek to remedy it. A MAD SCRAMBLE "I feel so keenly the responsibility •of it all, and the fact that the C.P.R. and the others have taken my word for such big debts, that I cannot afford to risk having a breakdown, either m my health or m the band arrangements. It is necessary, therefore, that we fix things up." That letter was the climax to a long period of worry over finance and wondering what was going to happen. Hill complained of the long delay there was m Baile and Beacroft replying to his letters and cablesT The sum of £300 was cabled to him after considerable delay, but

no instructions were sent with the money until eight days later, when Baile sent word for Hill to arrange the passages to Canada from England. Hill's grouch was that all this time he was m Canada kicking his heels around and not knowing what to do. When he received the instructions regarding passages he had just five weeks m which to get busy before the band arrived. "From then on it was nothing but a mad scramble," said Hill. Under {he agreement with the railroad company, Hill was to conduct the band through New Zealand, Baile to return to Australia. The C.P.R. were desirous of seeing a New Zealand band formed and sent to Canada, and m order to give the musical status to Hill as conductor it was thought that if he conducted the Australian combination through New Zealand that would do the trick. It was said to have been agreed by both Baile and Beacroft that this arrangement should be carried out when they signed the agreement. But Hill complained that it had not been carried out m any respect. Not only had Baile declined to allow him to conduct the band m New Zealand, but he had always evaded complying with Hill's request for financial statements as to what the band -was making. BAILE IN THE BOX Little fresh information came out when Hill was cross-examined, and it was not until Baile entered the box to tell his side of the story that proceedings livened up. Por the first few minutes of his long spell m the box, Baile quietly recounted his activities m forming the band with Beacroft, the engagement of Hill and the subsequent departure on tour. And then he came to the first rift m the lute at Toronto. "I had realised right froni the start that we were going to be up against it," he said. "We opened m Montreal to a 45---dollar house. The place we played m I would not have put a dog m. It was bitterly cold and m the open, and we had to close for the rest of the week. "Hill had written to us beforehand stating how much money we were going to make m Montreal arid he had told us that when we got down to the western districts everything would be all right. : '' "People used to tell us that when we got there our fortunes would . be made." , And then m Toronto, according to Baile, Hill dropped a bombshell m the camp. He demanded 10 per cent, of the gross takings and indicated that if he did not get it he would not carry on, said Baile.