A MEASURE FOR MUSICIANS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8488, 16 July 1907, Page 7

A MEASURE FOR MUSICIANS.

——» m©POSED|REGISTRATION OF PROFESSIONALS. Professional musicians are the latest members cf the community to covet the brand of. statutory registration. A Bill bearing the name of Mr Sidey,, .M.H.R., has been drafted and circulated. It aims at establishing a j. togk- called the Incorporated Society P>«P±he Musicians of New Zealand, and emanates from .the professional musicians of .the South. Wellington, apparently, has not been taken into the prometers'confidence, as the Bill sets out that all persons shall be entitled to have their names incorporated, \who are members of the Auckland Society of Musicians, Canterbury Society of Professional Musicians, Society of Musicians of Southland, Pamaru Society of Musicians, Society of Musicians of Oiago, and Society of Musicians of Timam. That is the first qualification. Another Ss.: —All persons of the < age '.cf twenty-one years and upwards who .satisfy the council that they Lave been professionally and habitually erg.ag-ed an ; ©.mpQSing, .teaching, psrforming or writing upon music for the period of three years or upwards Immediately .preceding the coming into operation of the Act." Further qualifications are that applicants for membership ■ be .of "established reputation,"possessproof that they have passed an examination held by any examining body recognisedjby". the council, or .have passed the examination prescribed by the : society. The Act divides the colony into districts, sisd proposes that the first annual meeting sha?l be ;helu in Christchurch, which shall be the head quarters till the nest annual meeting, the meetings then to be held in the four centres in rotation. "The constitution of the society ghall be fixed by numerical representation on the council—a district having forty ,members,two repressniatives on council; less than 40, one representative, be elected annually. Members of <the society shall be entitled to use ih« letters "Reg." Mus.," or "EU3.M." after their names. T&£ Bill was discussed by the Professional Musicians' Society of Wellington at a meeting on Saturday night, Mr Maughan Barnett presiding. The meeting was a private one, and after a long discussion, it was decided that the society could not support the measure in its present form.