FROM BENCH TO BATON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 5

FROM BENCH TO BATON.

DR. COWARD AND HIS METIER.

.i# a'sutleey iiini;"aCeigst "

YEARS.

Few people who have witnessed Pr. Coward, conducting the-Sheffield Ghoir at any/of the concert's during the tfiuniptaT tour of this great musical organisation coujd realise that ( he started life at the tender age of eight years; in a' Sheffield' cutlery mill. But it was thus »arly in. life that young Henry Coward, who! was destined to become one of.the greatest factors in making, oratorio music such a great and world-wide success, started out to toil for ; h'is-daily bread. -.-• pt. Coward "was not even a-musician •by' training, although.' itV is' almost assuredly; true r that the bump of music in his make-up was always a much more important factor than, the. bump that has. to do with applied mechanics or -with general commerce. His. father didn't .mean hini to be a lover of "music,' and concluded when little Henry/wasyet unbreeched, that the boy's life should lie along the lines that had been followed by "t'owd man." Such new-fangled ideas as wanting to be a musician,- aiid having a head for clefs and> staves,-never entered into the,'elder man's scheme bf things, and so he who is such a power-, in matters, musical-to-day, wae started-on the road towards being a cutler. CHILD-LABOUR: : ".

When Dr. Coward was a. boy. childlabour in the factories and mills of England's north and midlands was ;a byi ■word. To-day.it would be a. reproach. But "other times, other, methods," and a great deal of the terrible practice bi what was really babe-slavery has been ■wiped ottL ■ Vγ.: Coward, could, tell.you pitiful stories of the sad lives ofthe-littleoiies; as,bare of mind as they were'bare of foot, toddling, day by day, week in and week out the whole year round to work. It sounds almost ironical to say that these tiny morsels of humanity had to-go out to_ take their place in the "dustibrpwn Tanks of. toil, the legions of the shops." . , "I don't like to boast of my early life," said Dr. Coward, speaking to a "Sun" representative at There was a twinkle in his eye as he added: ■ "But you, out here, know all-about "the musical-side of mc, .and as you think it would be interesting for the'people "to "hear of my work-a-day life, I will telliybu.

"It /was- all .very prosaic. "I- was only' eight: or, nine-, years of. age .when I was. apprenticed; tinder' my father, in WoK stenhplme's shops. X was; to learn the whole of.the cutlery trade, a;nd I learned; it. My indentures-were for.. 12 years. Fancy that! Fancy any enlightened Syd--ney boy binding himself to-any master for; that length of time!: But I did —or at least my parents did. it for mc. And— J* suppose I can say pride myself -that I made myself a good workman. I was complimented on my ability, and I daresay that-if-I were to - charge of acutlery ..works" to-day r 1 -'could -malce as good a,showing-,as , -most men.- I everything—about-.-the-TOa,nufacture '■ and sale of cutlery from A to-Z, and I have won many prizes for. the - knives' and things I made..' '",'-.. 'V .-, "No, it was..not a .tedious life, at leas* , ' at-first, although it , was"a "strenuous; one: But somehow there was always the'imi? sical germ in mc,, and long before I was out of my 'time.l wanted to be a musician. I had the ."bee in my bonnet.' I remember how "my" dear father tried" to dissuade mc, and ljow nearly everybody, else , supported .him with their advice.. jto. mc not to make.a. fool of myself. ■'_■ r "One day—l was still only a youth—old George. Wolstenholme, then the head of the firm, came through £he workship, and casually he made a' remark to-me, as a Yorkshire employer often will to a Yorkshire employee." Tl MY PLEASURE; IS MUSIC. "He said, •Wβ!!, young man, and.what .is your pleasure? , , I suppose I stood him. Anyhow, I did not give ;bim the answer he expected. I said, ;*My pleasure is-music, sir.' He only growled at mc and said something in his plain, blunt way, about mc going to the devil. And ever after, that he, with others," did all they could to turn mc from the path X had, in thought, planned out for myself. But" it was no' use. :I, went right through all the branches of the work, and/was; finishing and polishing off my. business career when I came of age. Theni'as soon as I got put of my bonds, I chucked, it ajl ; ;. bonds, that,chafed.; that period I ndaresay I did-iiot act lira" very level-headed manner. The prospects for mc in the cutlery trade were good, very good. I daresay I could have been head of a department.' But - 1 did not want that. ', ~5~!

'Tor several years music had been gaining x". bigger, and bigger' told oflme: I had been educating hyself, too, in other ways. As far as musical education from any professional source-went,.l only had two or :three months of. it, and that was in a tonic sol-fa class.-; The rest of-my musical training has been absolutely self-' acquired.■•■■>'-'-'■':■ '-■'— : :: :;f■■''-': ■• ' v ". "Well, to make a long story short, when I left the shops I went in for school-teach-ing, became, a headmaster, and kept that position, in a board school—similar "to r yibur State schpbls---fdr.'ls years.Tin IS months I rose from" pupil teacher"to!the top of the tree. Then I was a grammar school master. The rest you kno.w..Music has been my Alpha and Omega, and there is nothing I love so much." '; .- Dr. Coward speaks appreciatively of ;the old firm, "and a little pocket-knife that he drew from his pocket as he* was talking bears the mark' annd the words "IXLWoletenholme." That and his household cutlery in hie " English home is Wolstenholme's, and he will tell you that, the best music.and the best knives:still eome,from Sheffield. .