Page 2 Advertisements Column 5

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 95, 19 May 1909, Page 2

Commenting on the Jlclba disappointment, tin! Stratford l'ost says:— People would require to coiumaud the wraith of a Carnegie or a Rockefeller to lie able to keep pace with Melba. Therv was a time iu the history of the Dominion when the best Italian opera (including some of the m»si talented .infers of the day, both male iiinl female I could he heard lor the expenditure of a few shillings in the hist part of the house; now the people are expected to pay pounds instead of shilling.-, for the same accommodation, and it is driiatoule if they would receive as good value for their outlay. So one wishes to dispute the title of Madame Melha to rank amongst the greatest prima donnas of the dnv, hut it is very doubtful Vhuther, in'a comparatively younjf country like New Zealand, where the majority of musiclovers unilouliteilly belong to the working classes, it is not too big a tax to expect the people to cheerfully part with | guineas and half-guineas jtiat for the, pleasure of listening to a couple of her numbers. Some professional chargesmore particularly doctors and luwyers—arc to a certain extent regulated by law: :it any rate, the lawyer's bill can ■be taxed, and the medical, man might find it necessary to seek the. aid of a' Court to cidlecl his account, where there is a possibility „f i ts being reduced. The professional singer, however, can charge what be or she likes', and there is no appeal (o Caesar because the satisfying of w's apuetite in this direction would be coiiKidercd Im'lnlginn iu luxuries. It is. however, admitted Ineven the medical fraternity themselves (hat such luxuries are of a vcrv "lent benefit to the human race—acting in many cases us a better stimulant tbun the medicine they might prescribe— m, <t is only reasonable to expect that professional singers should be reasonable in tiheir demand*. A lady who lived at Rozellt Had never been perfectly well; Till, growing quite chronic, Sh 0 tried Laxo-Tonic— She's a different storv to toll. LAXO-TANIC P1M5."10y 3 ,l and Is fid. —lJnllock & Johnston, Agents, So*Plymouth. .