The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1911. A SERIOUS SUBJECT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 49, 19 August 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1911. A SERIOUS SUBJECT.

Whether the New Zealand public are interested in the beliefs of Sydney aldermen we know not, but a cabled opinion of Alderman Meagher, who said that bands "enraged the public and drpve them to riot" is certainly worth the money it cost as a choice specimen of aldermanic humor. It seems that football crowds in Sydney would be as gentle as lambs if the bands didn't play, and it is therefore tolerably certain that when the next referee is killed by the crowd the brass band that incited the riot should be tried for manslaughter. The poetical person who held that "music ■hath charms to soothe the savage breast" was not acquainted with the Sydney public, who go demented when the "Soldiers in the Park" is played and tear down the grandstand if "Manhattan" rends the. air. Public bodies with aldermen of the Meagher tendency may possibly refuse permission for bands to play in public places, on the grounds that a selection of Sousa's marches might lead to street-fighting, and that the public might storm the Post Office to the music of the "Boulanger March.' On the other hand, it is likely that Sydney bands will not vote for Mr. Meagher at the next election, for he is i certainly not complimentary to them j when he says '"the music enrages the public." If Mr. Meagher or any other alderman is determined to root out the music evil, he might turn his attention to the piano-learner, who really does infuriate the public, or to the youthful bugler, who might easily incite to crime. , Perhaps there is something, after all,' in the contention that music infuriates and does not soothe, but we never saw an audience tear the theatre down when "God Save the King" was played, although we have frequently noticed the withdrawal of many men when the band played in the interval, this being probably due to the fact that the gentlemen wanted to restrain themselves from fighting with the dress circle chairs. It is hoped the local police will put its best foot foremost when next the Ciai'rison Band plays in order to restrain the populace from breaking shop windows and tearing the roads )ip! -Curiously, nothing has been said in the cablegrams about the bands that must have incited the rioters to break down walls in Liverpool, and injure policemen in London. Who knows but that all these riots might be traced to band practices or a phonograph entertainment, or even a boy bugler practising on his copper torturer! If the musicians who incited these riots can be discovered they should be sent to Holloway for seven years "without the option."