BAND CONCERTS.

Southland Times, Issue 18854, 21 June 1920, Page 7

BAND CONCERTS.

To the Kditor. •ir, —Would you kindly grant me space to let the public know the scandalous manner in which nur Town Councillors discourage the local bund*. At the last Council meeting one of the bands applied for the use of the theatre on Sunday evenings for the purpose of providing the public with a musical hour and a half—by the way giving them (the public) the opportunity of contributing their mite towards tile band’s upkeep, which is no small matter these days. The Council granted one Sunday on condition that the doors were not opened till S o’clock, theis being, I suppose, to suit the Ministers’ Association, or some other such wowserist’.c body. If this is j not the reason. Sir, I wish you could en- i lighten me on the method of their madness. as a travelling lecturer could rent the Victoria Hall last Sunday week and open the doors at 7.30, therefore it is quite evi- , dent there is one law for outsiders and another for the bands who have done so much for the town during the war and | since. It is needless to say the hand in question promptly turned the matter down, as they had an experience of So clock opening some months ago when hundreds of the public were kept waiting out in the cold till the churches came out, with the result that when the doors were opened there was a wild stampede to get in, which was disgraceful for a Sunday evening, to say the least of it, and as the bands are only al- | lowed to take a collection at these concerts, j this suffered to such an extent that there j was hardly enough taken to pay the rent of the theatre. The Council will not pay the hands decently to provide the public , with music, and on the other hand the> : are doing their best to stop the public (who always give handsomely when they have j the opjxirtnmty ' from coatribulmg. As a j case in point I might state that this after- j noon a band concert was given in No. 2 Gardens bv the Hibernian Band and when the collectors took up their usual places inside the gates, they were promptly accosted by the city gardener who was tinned with a warrant from the C ouncil forbidding col- [ lections to be lakeu no al the gates or on j the footpaths. To show that- the Council | ivtigh' just as well have forbidden collections altogether. 1 might mention that the last concert held there by this baud realised , £l3 Ins, while to-day’s collection, which was onlv made among the few people who stood on 'the grass, was not sufticient to pay for the music the! the baud placed. (Now, Sir, I think it is time the public took a hand in this matter, for the bands have quite enough to do to keep themselves efficient so as to keep pace with the othrr bands of New Zealand without being always up against those in authority, who should do their utmost to give them the most encouragement. In Wanganui, 1 imam Wellington and Christchurch one can go almost any Sunday night to some of the theatres and hear band concerts and the bands are encouraged in a manner that has always been the envy of Invercargill bandsmen'and there is not the slightest doubt that the encouragement given to W angauui and Timaru bands by their City Councils and the public generally is a big factor towards their success at contests'. I have beside me two programmes played recently in the Wanganui Opera House by the W a.tf ganui band.', scut me by a friend, who informs me that the Council pays the baud per vear and the collections dt then Sunday evening concerts average between c 4O to £.il). No wonder their band, who pavs their conductor £2, r .O per year, can enter contests with an advantage over other hands, and yet this is all due to the townspeople and Council of Wanganui I am afraid there will not be much done tor the Invercargill bands- until we kick out t'm old obsolete Scotch and Irish councillor* and till the benches with good levelheaded colonials who will do their best for the ratepayers even to providing them with mod band music. Ap.olngi.-mg for taking up so much of your valuable space and thanking you. --I am, ( 'tc,. ~ "DISGUSTED BANDc-MAN June 20.