SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874] TUESDAY, SEPT, 18, 1894. THE THEATRE ROYAL PROJECT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4828, 18 September 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874] TUESDAY, SEPT, 18, 1894. THE THEATRE ROYAL PROJECT.

The Theatre Royal project is dead, and as the lending promoters ot this enterprise were wedded to this special building, wo may assume that the embryo company is also defunct, Mastcrton only possesses the Temperance Hall as an Assembly-room, and this structure, though a useful stop-gap, is too small for the place, A public hall of some kind is needed; not exactly a Theatre, because insurances on theatrical buildings are ruinously high, but either a town hall or im assembly room. The Drill Shed will bo shortly availablo; but it is very doubtful whether the building could over bo converted into a convenient hall. Its accoustic properties are extremely bad, and it has other detractions which are too wellknown to require recapitulation. Whether it be capable of being altered into a satisfactory hall, we know not; but if it be amenable to reconstruction, the process would undoubtedly be costly. If Mnsterton is to have a suitable hall, an effort is needed, cither on the part of the Town Lands Trust or of a public company. Tlio Trust is hardly .in possession of sufficient accumulated funds to carry out an undertaking of this kind single handed, but it is in possession of more than one suitable site, and we do not see why it should not co-operate with a local Company. Wo would very much like to see apublic hall erected of permanent materials. It is possible that such a structure could ho obtained at a cost of from two to three thousand pounds, and this would prove cheaper in tho long run than a wood and iron edifice. Or if the Town Lands Trust would not, co-operate, a freehold site could be purchased for a couple of hundred pounds, and a Company with a very moderate capital could erect a brick building, as on such a substantial structure money could be borrowed at a low rate of interest, and insurances would be only a nominal charge. The businessmen of Mastertou might find it worth their while to consider the expediency of forming a Company, not with the idea of securing any particular site, but for the general benefit ofthetownandandtrade. Business men could mako an enterprise of this kind pay, but if men inexperienced in business took charge of it, wo fear the result would be unsatis* factory.