PEACE CELEBRATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 151, 26 June 1919, Page 9

PEACE CELEBRATIONS.

USE OF GERMAN MUSIC. CITY ORGANIST OBJECTS. A meeting of the Peace Celebrations Committee was held in the City Council Chamber yesterday afternoon, the Mayor (Mr. J. H. Gunson) presiding. A draft programme for the thanksgiving gathering to be held in the Town Ball on the Sunday beginning the peace celebration week, was submitted. The main features proposed were addresses by Bishop Averill, the Mayor, and one other speaker, three well-known hymns, and two items by the Choral Society. In a memorandum the City Organist (Mt. J. Maughan Barnett), who had been consulted, objected to the two items chosen by the Choral Society the "Hallelujah Chorus" (Handel's ""Messiah") and lion Lovely are the Messengers" (Mendelssohn's "St. Paul"). "German music," Mr. Barnett stated, "seems to mc so absolutely out of place in connection with the function concerned that I am not prepared to accept any responsibility for the inclusion of these two items." Mr. C. Hudson, Mayor of Mount Eden (who is also an official of the Choral Society), said that he could not see the force of the objection. The "Hallelujah Chorus" had been sung by British people for many years on occasions of re.joicin". As a matter of fact, Handel became a naturalised British subject, and his name had been a household word in Britain for generations past. The question •whether a composer had German blood In him really did not matter, and the eug<re»tion that the music of two of the world's greatest' composers should he barred on that 'account should not be seriously considered. Thep rogramme was adopted provisionally, and a music sub-committee, consisting ot" Messrs. Hudson, Maughan Barnett. and Colin M-.iston, was set up, with authority to purchase the necessary jnusic. The honorary organiser (Mr. C. F. Bickford) presented a report on his special tour of the South. In Invercargill. he stated, it had been decided to hold a ball for returned soldiers, and it was intended to send out 800 invitations, each soldier to bring one lad v. He recommended that a "fourth day he set aside for the entertainment of returned | men and the widows and children of the fallen, arranged as follows: Special' picture entertainment for widows and children in the afternoon, followed by h_h tea, with games afterwards for the children, the soldiers' ball to be held in the evening. He believed that the business houses which did not intend to go in for illuminations would readily give financial help. The committee deferred consideration of the scheme for a week to enable inquiries to be made. The Auckland branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants wrote forwarding a copy of a resolution expressing the opinion that the money proposed to be spent on peace celebrations be devoted to benevolent purposes. The letter was merely received.