THE VICTORY MUSICAL FESTIVAL

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24570, 19 May 1945, Page 8

THE VICTORY MUSICAL FESTIVAL

Sir,—lnquiries made concerning the musical festival to be held on Sunday reveal that 300 seats have ’ been allotted, to the mayoral party. One would naturally expect that some arrangements would have been made for the seating of some of the disabled or the dependants of those who have helped to make the victory possible, but the Returned Services’ Association has no knowledge of any such arrangements. After seeing the victory parade of last week, headed by a Ministerial car bearing an able-bodied Minister of the Crown who waved graciously to the crowds while a disabled member of the council hobbled behind on a stick, one was perhaps foolish to expect that any provision would be made for these people. —Yours, etc., SPECTATOR. May 18, 1945. [Commenting on the above, the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr E. H. Andrews) said that he was not responsible for the details of the seating arrangements, As on all such public occasions a certain number of seats were allotted to members of the official party. Regarding the latter portion of “Spectator’s” letter,. Mr Andrews said that at a comparatively early stage in the procession he. stopped the mayoral car and at his instance the Town Clerk got out and offered the disabled City Councillor a seat in his car. The offer, however, was declined. The chairman of the musical festival committee (Mr J. L. Hay) said that special provision had been made for the accommodation of special cases and persons occupying invalids’ chairs. Seating accommodation was naturally limited because of the large number of seats necessarily reserved for members of the combined choirs.]