BLIND INSTITUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 460, 15 September 1928, Page 12

BLIND INSTITUTE

NEW BANDMASTER APPOINTED Formed only 18 months ago, the Boys’ Band at the Blind Institute made splendid progress under the late Mr. G. F. Cater. Recently, Mr. Rex Wills has tutored the band in a voluntary capacity, and now the trustees of the institute have secured the services of the well-known bandmaster, Mr G. TV. Bowes as a successor to Mr. Cater. Mr. Bowes reseived his musical training in the Army, where he was band sergeant in the Eighth Hussars, and served in the South African War. He subsequently conducted the Clowne Silver Band, near Chesterfield, and the Priory Foundry Band, in Nottinghamshire. In 1907. with the former band, ne won the 50 guineas shield at the Crystal Palace, and the Shirebrook 1912, shortly after his arrival in New Zealand, he took charge of the TV ellington Tramways Band for six years, prior to leaving for Trentham, where he conducted a military band. The trustees of the institute intend to arrange a tour of New Zealand toward the end of the year, providing the boys can work up a programme in time. Friends of the institute in the South will thus have an opportunity ot seeing something of the work that is being done. - The trustees hope to make the ban a one of the loading features of the institute.