Australian Boys' Band

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 19, 18 November 1932, Page 5

Australian Boys' Band

Concert from ITYA "FDUCATION BY TRAVEL? is tha! slogan of the Australian Boys’ Band, which will make a two months’ tour of the Dominion from December 20, and which will give a brief broads cast concert from 1YA, Auckland, at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20, The band, twenty members of which are under twelve years of age, repree sents the Hurstville (Sydney) division of the Young Australia League, The three cardinal principles of the league are love, service, and tolerance. From small beginnings in Perth, Western Australia, the league has developed at an amazing rate, so that now it is an all-Australian organisation with divis sions in every State. The movement is ou much the same lines as the Boy Scouts, except that it seeks to develop the arts. One of the purposes of the league is to encourage a more friendly interest between the various parts of the Hmepire, and the English-speaking world generally. With that idea in mind the Young Australia League brought three groups of boys from the United States of America to study conditions in Anse tralia, the first in 1909, the second in 1918, and the third in 1919, In 1912, sixty-seven Canadian boys were brought by the league to Australia, while in 1926 forty-two British boys toured Australia under the auspices of the league, The first party from the league te go overseas was in 1911-12, when 4 tour of the world was made. The gece ond was in 1915-16, when a party calle ed at New Zealand en route to Canada’ and the United States. The third, in 1924, made an Empire tour, embracing the United Kingdom and Canada. A big overseas tour was conducted by ‘the league in 1925, when 140 boys toured the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, and. Belgium. The most recent overseas yenturé took place in 1929, when 160 boys, res presenting the whole of Australia, madé a seven months’ tour of the United States and Canada. That was the bige gest tour of boys carried out in the history of the world. Forty in Party. HERE are thirty-eight boys and tw@ adults in the band. The bandmaster is Mr. B. W. Caten, professor afi the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, who was'a member of the Conservators ium Orchestra which toured New Zea« land under Henri Verbrugghen in 1920, Mr. Caten was formerly a member of the famous Scots Guards Band. There ave twenty boys under the ages of -twelye and eighteen between twelve ang fifteen. When the band was on its Amee rican tour Mr. John Philip Sousa publicly stated that it was "the finest boys’ band in the world." The profits arising from the tour wil! be devoted to charitable institutions in the various places visited, such inv stitutions to be determined by lIocat committees.