TOWN HALL ACCOMMODATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10241, 18 May 1911, Page 5

TOWN HALL ACCOMMODATION.

[To The, Editor, i Sir, —Now that Trust Lands Trust matters aro being so freely discussed, I write to enquire if better control can be exercised by tho Trustees over the seating accommodation of the Town Hall, when it is leased to a theatrical company. The Town Hall, as stated in the speeches on Tuesday night, was erected for the purposes of education and public utility for tho benefit of all classes of people in Masterton. There are, as every one knows, three classes of accommodation in the ball: dress circle, stalls, and pit, at three different prices of admission. When some companies lease the hall they carry, what they term, orchestra* stalls, half way down the stalls accommodation, and the stalls half-wr • into the pit. leaving only a few rows of benches for "the gods." This means that the cla.ss of person only able to pay pit or stall prices are robbed of their opportunity to witness a. play, or if they are eager, as many of them are. are so mercilessly packed and crushed, as not only to oe "looking on under difficulties," but to be living in' an atmosphere approaching that of the "black hole of Calcutta." Is it impossible to make a stipulation when the hall is being leased, that the upstairs is the dress circle, the chairs downstairs are the stalls, and the benches at the back the nit. and that no theatrical company has liberty to manipulate and decrease the reating iaccommodation provided for each class of playgoer. I have heard jt ?tatel that if this was done the best companies will not c-ome to there are a good many that- arpuc th»t they will com,e. and that tl\e pie fnt tactics are only adopted by theatric:'l companies because "th,e law allows it.'"* Would it not also be policy to increase the rental to a Company that charges os, 3s, and 2s. to twice as much as one that charges 3s, 2s, and Is? I hope some of the candidates who are makimr electioneering speeches shortly will, if they have time, give some information on this subject, for which the public will be grateful;—T "m.pfo.. • , D. HEBENTON. Masterton, May 17, 1911,.