Town Hall about to join life of Chch

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33034, 29 September 1972, Page 1

Town Hall about to join life of Chch

Tomorrow, after a century of dreaming and six years of planning and building, the Christchurch Town Hall will become an official part of the city’s life.

The Governor-General (Sir Denis Blundell) will open the Town Hall at 11 a.m. tomorrow; the ceremony will be televised live and will be the subject of a national radio broadcast.

It will be more than three years and a half since his predecessor (Sir Arthur Porritt) laid the foundation stone and almost four years since the site was cleared.

Present at the opening will be the Prime Minister (Mr Marshall), the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk), local members of Parliament, mayors and county chairmen from metropolitan Christchurch, and county and borough heads from other parts of Canterbury. Special guests will be the Lord Mayor of Adelaide (Mr W. H. Hayes), the Australian High Commissioner (Dame Annabelle Rankin), and the British High Commissioner (Sir Arthur Galsworthy). After the opening ceremony there '/ill be a civic luncheon in the the Limes Room for about 400 invited guests. The Town Hall restaurant will open to the public on Monday. Capacity houses

All of the functions during this, the opening week-end, have attracted capacity houses so that it will not be possible to admit the public;

ticket-holders only will be allowed into the building. Tomorrow evening the inaugural concert will be held in the main auditorium, during which the Royal Christchurch Music Society and the Canterbury Representative Band will perform “A Christchurch Cantata”, composed especially for the occasion by the eminent English composer Eric Ball. Also taking part in the concert will be the Canterbury All-Stars Band, the Christchurch Civic Orchestra, and the Christchurch Harmonic Society. At 2.30 p.m. on Sunday a non-denominational church service will be held in the auditorium. The Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt Rev. W. A. Pyatt) will lead the opening prayer and give the final blessing and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch (the Most Rev. B. P. Ashby) will read the prayers. The Moderator of the Christchurch Presbytery (the Rev L. Jones) will give a reading and the president of the North Canterbury District of the Methodist Church will

present a Bible to the Town Hall.

The Governor-General will read the lesson from this Bible and the address will be given by the Rev. A. H. McLeod, president of the National Council of Churches of New Zealand. The anthem will be sung by a 400-voice choir of secondary school pupils accompanied by the Salvation Army Christchurch Citadel Band. Gala opening On Sunday night the gala opening of the first produc-

tion in the James Hay Theatre — Dame N g a i o Marsh’s production of “Henry V” — will be held. The chairman of the Town Hall committee (Mr H. G. Hay) said last evening it was hoped that ticket-holders for the inaugural concert and the gala opening of “Henry V” would choose formal evening wear for those events. He also asked that the owners of Christchurch buildings, particularly those in the vicinity of the Town Hall, fly flags from their premises over the week-end.