MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

1- bookings. . '* . HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. To-night"The Butterflies." . ■' May 12 to Hugard Wonder Show. . May 22 to Jun* i-J. 0. Williamson. Ma, June 9 to June 25—Geo. Marlow, Ltd. June £6 to July 6—J. 0. Williamson, Ltd. July 7 to 19—Allen Doone. August 4to 16--J C. Williamson, Ltd. _ August T8 to September 27—Branacombe Wi October Ito 11— 0. Williamson, Ltd. TOWN HALL. May 9 to 21Branscorabe Co. OPERA HOUSE. - Vaudeville.

The success of Auckland competitors was quite a feature of the recent Christchurch competitions. Mr. Harry Borradale, who has gained/ , elocutionary championships both in Auckland and tchurcli in previous years, again achieved that honour. Ho entered in 15 classes, gained eight firsts, . four seconds, one third, and two specials. Air. Borradale is a prominent member of the Auckland Shakespere Society. Miss Zoe Bartley, also; wellknown in her native city of Auckland, gained . six firsts at the Christchurcli competitions, also four seconds, three thirds, and two specials. Another successful Aucklander was Miss Rita Grace Smith, 11 years old, who won the first prize for piano solo for girls under 13. In the competition, for girls under 18 she was placed fourth with ; honourable ■ mention. Miss Smith now holds four medals and nine certificates for proficiency, besides the certificate of the - higher division, Royal Academy ol Music. , v ' '>• <%>' Mr. J. C. Williamson recently returned to Australia from his visit abroad to secure attractions, ;in the course of ■ which he stayed some time in America. He states that of all the dramatic he had witnessed the one that impressed him most was " Within the Law. _ . George Edwardes," added Mr. Williamson, •"■thought so much of ' Within the Law that, though for years he has devoted his activities solely to the production of musical plays, he has decided to present this drama at - one of the leading London theatres. I have never seen a. play to equal it for dramatic power, and those gripping qualities that characterises a play of intense human interest like this. ' The first production in Australia of " Within the Law" will be given at the Theatre Royal," Melbouorne, on Saturday night next, by a company, including some leading artists, specially brought from America. These will include Miss Muriel Starr, Miss Mary Worth, and Lincoln Plumer, all of whom occupy an important position on the dramatic stage in America.. A remarkable career is to the credit of Miss Cecilia Loftus, the well-known variety artist, reported to be seriously ill. Her first husband was Justin Huntly McCarthy. Born in Glasgow and educated at a Blackpool convent, she first made her appearance as a mimic at the Oxford Music Hall in 1893. Then followed innumerable successes, including Marguerite in " Faust," with Sir Henry Irving, and Viola in " Twelfth Night," produced for her by Mder Modjeska. Songs, verses, and short stories helped to diversify her life on the stage. Latterly she has returned to her old love, mimicry, in which she is probably unexcelled. ! •

, •hie Rev. A. J, Waldron, vicar of Brixton, London, speaking at the opening of the Brixton Palladium, remarked that he was chaplain of the local theatre and of the Empress Theatre of Varieties. In future he would become chaplain of the Brixton Palladium. "We must have enjoyment," he declared, "and we want the beet we can get. I am never ashamed to take my boy to the picture, palace. But do not think that because I am a parson I am out to say that you must have inptruction and instruction only. That is perfectly absurd. I • shall come into this picture palace, and I hopti that sometimes I shall be able to forget the worries of the parish and everything else." A tour embracing all the principal centres of Australia and New Zealand has been mapped out by Mr. William Anderson for the Musical Comedy ( Company, which has been appearing in Melbourne for the past six weeks with such success in the musical novelty entitled " The Grafters." The artists are all American, and such popularity have thy won that at a recent benefit the entrance of those members who were contributing to the programme was the signal for a storm of applause. '■ : V Harry Lauder, the famous comedian, whose visit to Australia and New Zea-, land will be one of the events 1914, first saw the light of day at Portobello, Scotland. Lauder is about 43 years of age— he was born on August 4, 1870 and for 30 of them has been a sitigcr. He made his first public appearance at a musical competition at Arbroath, Scotland. The boy, with- small confidence in his powers and little expecting succ&s, confronted a crowded audience in a song that had the pathetic refrain, "Though poor I'm a gentleman still." Somehow the judges were

touched by his rendering at the item, and granted him the first prize of a keyless watch. Needless to say that timepiece is. now a treasured possession in the Lauder household. It was Harry's first award as a popular vocalist. v. ■ •• - V A series of most interesting and fascinating pictures was being shown in London when the mail left. Films were obtained during a four years' voyage in the South Seas undertaken by Mr. J. London. Scenes in the Hawaiian groups, Melanesia, and Polynesia, also Java, Sumatra, and the Sulu Islands, proved of great interest to Londoners, especially in view of the fact that everyone had an opportunity of comparing the mil thing on the screen with 3ir Herbert Tree's " Happy Island" at. His Majesty's. 1 Pip Popwell. one of the comedians in "Mr. Puss-in-Boots," is cpming to the Dominion intent on scoring in Dunedin. He has announced that he has a joke specially designed to make the Dunedin people laugh. Should "he succeed the comedian affirms that he will bill himself as "The Man Who Made Dunedin Laugh." Miss Felico Lyne, the young American primar donna, who appeared in London in Oscar Hammerstein's Opera House, and accused her manager of having struck her with a score of "Faust," is to be a member of the Quinlan Grand Opera Company to visit Australia and New Zealand this year. The tour will begin at Melbourne in August. The cinematograph was recently used by Professor C. E. Larard, M.lnst.M.E., A.M.lnst.C.E.', for the purpose of illustrating the phenomena of elastic and plastic strains before the members of the Sheffield Society of Engineers and Metallurgists. Miss Billio Barlowe, who < appeared in • Australia some yeaTs ago in burlesque, has joined the Royal Cami® Opera Company, and will bo seen in "The Sunshine Girl." " Hiawatha" is the subject of one of ' the latest films produced in America. All the - parts are said to be taken by fullblooded Indians. In the. revival epidemic that has over- ' spread the American stage "The Merry 1 War," once a popular operetta, is to have 1 another outbreak. • "The Merry War" was produced in New Zealand by the Pollard ! Liliputians in the 9G's, a»d was a success. > The first of the New Zealand'films taken • by the Melies Company in the King Coun- - try was released on March . 14. It is en- ) titled, "Loved by a Maori Chieftess." , According to the synopsis printed by the I General Film Company, the story told is i that a "British trapper" was captured by , Maoris' just after the rising in 1870, and }, was rescued by the chief's daughter from I death by fire, v ' • MUSICO-DRAM ?v.• s•'vr,v> r V:. ;