MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 59, 7 September 1909, Page 3

MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE.

BANDS AND PREACHERS. [BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Municipal band music is again to bo » summer attraction in Christchufch, the City Council having made even more elaborate preparations than it did last year to provide concerts for the delectation of the citizens. Four bands are to be engaged, and a cencert will be given in the city each week, while there will be six Sunday afternoon concerts in the public gardens. In addition, sixteen concerts are to be given in Sydenham Park, nine in St. Albans Park, and eight in Linwood Park. The council proposes to hold a competition at the. end of the season for the municipal bands, and prizes of £15 and £5 will be given. The City Council has spent quite a lot of time lately discussing the question of Sunday concerts, and a little while ago, after much lively discussion, came to the conclusion that it could not grant permission to a band to give concerts on Sunday afternoons, so long as collections were made on behalf of the band. This evening the council received a request from the Scottish boy preacherand his father, who are conducting a J mission for the Primitive Methodist Church, for permission to hold a Sunday afternoon service in Victoria Square. The friends of the band opposed the suggestion, biit finally permission was given, by ten votes to four. Then, however, the council was faced with another band request, and there was a keen debate on the question. One councillor raised the point that both the religious people and the band would want to make collections, and a majority of councillors was of opinion that so Ion? as a band played suitaple music on a Sunday afternoon, and did not clash with religious services, the question of a collection need not be considered. By a majority of two votes,- the band secured leave to give two or three concerts at Lancaster Park, in aid of its Invercargill contest expenses.