WHAT MAY HAPPEN TO AN AMATUER ACTOR.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1311, 19 April 1883, Page 2

WHAT MAY HAPPEN TO AN AMATUER ACTOR.

TO TRW KIHTOH. Sir, — Will the public kindly read the following :—-Mr , Dear Sir, —We are instructed by Mr Gillon, the New Zealand agent for Mr Henry Leslie, author of the play called the “Mariner’s Compass,” performed by you on two occasions in Gisborne, to inform you that unless the sums of £4 (being the fee for the two nights, at 40s night) and £5, the costs and expanses" to which he (Mr Gillon) has be paid at once "proceedings will -nigtlTwtca against you, and also against Mr Neville Thornton, and every one of the amateurs who took part in the performance, each of whom has rendered himself liable to a penalty of £2 for each representation. Mr Gillon is advised on competent authority, rhat Mr Thornton’s defence that the play is a revision of his own cannot stand. “The Mariner’s Compass ” was not a dramatisation of any book but an original play, which took the £lOO book prize. The title, cast, etc., are strictly copyright. We should be very loath to put your name on a summons on such an account, and we trust, therefore, that you will see that a prompt settlement is the best course in this matter.—Yours faithfully, , Solicitors. This is the sort of thing an amateur runs the risk of when working ip a good cause. When that £2 and the £5 are collected, it will not be from yours truly, Trafalgar Joe. [Mr Thornton has assured us most positively that the dramatisation is his, and as proof produced an old and well-thumbed MSS. which fully bore out his statement, “ Trafalgar Joe” and the lady and gentlemen amateurs can, however, afford to laugh at Mr Gillon.—Ed. P. B. S.