OTAKI JUVENILE COMPETITIONS.

Shannon News, 1 May 1925, Page 3

OTAKI JUVENILE COMPETITIONS.

20-GUINEA VOCAL SCHOLARSHIP OFFERED. (Otaki "Mail.") In connection with the Otaki. competitions to be he.id in. July, Madame Josephine Ottlee has written to the committee stating that she will be willing to help tne committee in any "way possible, .and "will at any time get the advice of the secretary of tlie Wellington competitions Society, wno has expressed himself as delighted 'with the progress of the Otaki Society, and most cordially offers his; help. She aiso states that she. should like to encourage older girls to enter the co«v petitions and, with a view tq doing so, offers a scholarship, twelve monin& free vocal training, worth twenty guineas, to tlie winner, the age of entrants to be sixteen and under twenty. Why she has fixed twenty as the age limit is chiefly, she says, because girls under twenty can procure a second class railway pass from Otaki to Wellington once a week, any train, for three months, at the small cost of 255, which means that travelling expenses would be very small—a little undei 2s per week. If "twenty or over" expenses would be double. Last year, Madame Ottlee goes on to say, there were so many promising voices that I should like to see large entries at the forthcoming competitions, especially in the section "girls sixteen and under twenty." I should like, she adds, to choose a simple test song, and let them also sing one of their own choice, to be sung as A and B, with three or four .recalls to be sung off at the evening session. The competitions committee have instructed Mr Petrie to reply accepting Madame Ottiee's very generous scholarship, and to convey to her their sincere thanks for the invaluable assistance she is giving in promoting the welfare of our competitions. The chance of a lifetime is here offered t'o young girls, vocally talented, and a large entry is confidently expected for this section. The Committee has decided that this scholarship shall be open to all residents between the Manawatu river, including Poxton, and Paekakariki.