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Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 2, 27 September 1944, Page 6

It is encouraging to note the progress being made in musical culture in the secondary schools. 3tn Dinwlhi, for example, the work of Dr. Vernon Griffiths in raising the standard of juvenile musical development is already well known. Other post-primary schools, following his example, have specially-appointed teachers for concentrating upon this subject. It would have been difficult to imagine, say, twenty-five years ago, a children’s choir of TOO voices with its own juvenile orchestra of 300 musicians, such as is conducted by Dr. Griffiths in Dunedin. Child musicians playing in concert were unknown. Today it is becoming quite common. Following iu Dr. Griffiths’s footsteps the Hutt Valley Memorial Technical College, led by the zeal and enthusiasm of the musical director, Mr. Rudolph E. AlcLay, now has a choir of over 300 children and an orchestra of over 100 young instrumentalists, who are to make their appearance before the Wellington public at the Town Hall on Saturday in a variety of items, which will include an excerpt from Handel’s “Messiah.” The promoters make no ambitious pretensions. “There will be few of our audience,” they say, “who will wish to judge our music by professional standards. Wo should like all to learn for themselves that here is good music performed with obvious enjoyment by some hundreds of young folk, the majority of whom would have had no opportunity of experiencing the joys of music-making were it not for their school.” With such, a recommendation'they will be welcomed as missionaries of higher musical culture for our schools.

In Australia the Central Wool Committee, after reviewing the operations of the past five years, has decided that the practice of retaining a percentage of the appraised price until the end of each season can be discontinued without risk. Woolgrowers in the Commonwealth have been informed that for the current season the Central Committee will not withhold any part of the appraised price as retention money. Participating suppliers will be paid, within 14 days of the completion of each appraisement series, the full appraised price of their wool. There seems to have always been in Australia a wider margin between appraisement values and the British Government’s purchase price than has been the case here, but the most marked difference in the systems of the two countries now lies in the fact that the Australian grower will be paid, first, the total of appraised values, and later the final distribution in cash, whereas in the Dominion the initial payment is less 10 per cent, retention money, and the final one (over £200) is made partly in cash and partly in bonds. As the Dominion appraisals have never exceeded t.lio final purchase prices, and there has been no occasion to use the retention money for adjustment purposes, the retention of the system calls for close