VALUE OF COMPETITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 53, 31 August 1934, Page 8

VALUE OF COMPETITIONS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —It was deemed politic to. deny from the stage' during this (Wednesday) evening's session of tho Wellington Competitions recalls, the rumour, persistently current, that this year was to terminate the society's activities. If there is any ulterior motive in the unkind rumour it should be defeated by a display of loyalty and public-spirited-ness on the part of the citizens of Wellington, encouraging to the hard-work-ing committee and appreciatively to tho liiany earnest and talented competitors alike, who annually . provide entertainment which eminent visiting judges, without exception, have highly commended throughout the seventeen years during which these competitions have done their part to encourage rising talent, among the juvenile section particularly, and provide scholarships for the maturer portion of the entrants who have been painstaking enough to acquire the merit'necessary to win them. The profits, if any, are secured for the benefit of future competitors, and not taken, away from New Zealand, as is done in many instances where the purely commercial aspect of the venture is usually the deciding factor as to whether tho particular entertainment shall bo given or not. ■Tho cumulative value of these comi petitions cannot be computed in mere £ s. d. I feel certain the bulk of the citizens recognise tho educative and; cultural, worth and gain of" tho-many j years of endeavour that have passed, I and .'will see to it that the Wellington j Competitions Society celebrates its twenty-first birthday in due course, and in a manner befitting its fine record of the years gone by.—l am, etc., ' ■ ENCOTJEAGEMENT~ (To the Editor.) Sir,-—lt seems to me- a very strange' thing that, knowing that tho Competitions Society hired the Town Hall every August for its annual festival, the City Council could not look ahead a few weeks and delay the demolition of the tower until the festival had been held. After taking such a long time to consider the matter, surely the urgency was not that great that it could not have allowed the society a fair spin. As a regular patron of the Competitions, I must sympathise with the executive in the tremendous handicap it has been placed under this year, with the Town Hall barricaded and the front door closed to traffic—all through the want of a little forethought on the part of those whose duty it is to care for our city's welfare. The demolition process has undoubtedly affected tho attendance at tho concerts. Parents, too, would view with some alarm the prospects of their children walking in and out and around the scaffolding with which the council has scon fit to decorate the .city hall for this great children's festival.—l' am, etc., ■ .-.-■.■■■•■■ "'

DISGUSTED,