THE CATHEDRAL ORGAN.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18722, 19 June 1926, Page 17

THE CATHEDRAL ORGAN.

TO THE EDITOE OF .THE PEEBS. Sir,—l fear the reference to the new Cathedral organ contained in your issue of yesterday may cause a good deal of misapprehension. "With your kind permission'l will correct a few inaccuracies contained therein. The present organ has not yet been dismantled. Three stops which required special treatment were sent to England some months ago.- In all other respects the instrument remains untouched. Iniact, in response to request's, I intend giving a few recitals on the organ before it is further reduced in size. The number of speaking stops in the present organ is thirty-five. With the exception of seven - of the reed type, all these stops will be incorporated in the new instrument. Further than this, by a system of duplication now commonly adopted in organ-building, five of these old stops will be used in two different departments, so'producing the effect of double the number, i.e., they will add ten stops to the scheme. The new organ will •have three manuals, not .four. It will be capable of the effects of a fourdccker, but by having the choir and solo organs played from one keyboard a considerable saving in expense has been effected. You v/ill see from this that it is scarcely correct to speak of the present instrument as being scrapped. By using all the good material, we are not only retaining work which could scarcely be surpassed; "we are also saving in cost a sum of probably not less than three thousand pounds. As you state in your article, the present organ is not' only hopelessly out of date, but it is most unreliable, owing to the action being practically worn out. The new instrument will not only be tlra finest church organ in New Zealand; it will have, I think, only one serious rival in Australia. I refer to' the Melbourne Cathedral organ. This is .already a large four-manual . with pneumatic action, modern compared with our present instrument, and I learn from Mr Ingram, who is in charge of our work, that the Chapter has decided to spend some five or six thousand pounds adding an echo organ and electrifying the action. I hope this latter fact may tend to soothe the feelings of those good people who consider that the provision of a first-class organ for our beautiful Cathedral is a piece of wicked extravagance.—Yours, etc., JOHN C. BRADSHAW. The Cathedral, June 18th,. 1926.