No organ for Town Hall

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 12

No organ for Town Hall

In spite of the fact that it has §55,000 in the kitty, the Town Hall Board of Management does not want to use it to buy a pipe organ.

Christchurch is the only main centre in New Zealand with a town hall minus an organ, but members of the Town Hall Board felt yesterday that a pipe organ would be too expensive to buy and to maintain. The matter was raised when the board received a letter from the Christchurch Civic Music Council asking ; what funds were available for an organ. The council also suggested that 1982, the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Town Hall, would be a good date to set as a fund-raising target. The Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay) said that feasibility studies had already been done on a pipe organ, which would cost at least §200,000. “Organ recitals are very pleasant for sophisticated music lovers but they would not be a great crowd drawcard,” he said.

The secretary of the board (Mr J. H. Gray) agreed, and said that he had heard that free organ concerts were given in the Dunedin Town Hall to give the organ there some use. They were attended by about 100

persons. "The cost of maintaining one is even higher if it is not used,” he said.

Cr Mollie Clark said the board had to decide between what was desirable and what i was essential “in these times of austerity.” She noted that i local cathedrals were making : their organs available for recitals and said that anyone \ who wanted to raise the money for one would have Ito do it of their own accord. C r Helen Garrett disagreed. “In a Town Hall of this calibre “we don’t want just anv old organ,” I she said. “In Sydney and in Adelaide they have their new organs. They had to wait, but they were prepared ■to do it.”

The organ installed this year in the Sydney Opera House was reputed to have cost §BOO,OOO, the meeting was told. The Town Hall manager (Mr B. P. Connell) suggested that a cheaper electronic organ would be more useful in the Town Hall, for primary school music festivals and the like. The meeting resolved to write to the Civic Mu»U Council, saying that the pipa organ was beyond rne board’s means, but it would ;be prepared to consider a cheaper model, not costing 'more than $lOO,OOO.