NEXT BAND CONTEST

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 April 1935, Page 9

NEXT BAND CONTEST

NEW PLYMOUTH PREPARATIONS DOMINION OFFICERS PRESENT Members of the committee which has been formed in New Plymouth for the purpose of controlling the arrangements for the 1936 New Zealand Band eoniest at New Plymouth were met last night by members of the Dominion- Executive of the Association. There were present Messrs P. E. Stainton (chairman), E. Paliiser (president of the New Zealand Brass Band Association), J. S. Osborne (secretary of the association), C. Patchett (a member of the management committee), R. J. E-stall (conductor of the Woolston Band, Christchurch), F. Amoore, A. Dunkley, A. L. Griffiths, P. Sheppard and I<\ S. Nicholson (secretary).

In connection with the guarantee of 50 per cent, of the profits which the executive had given to the association, Mr Patchett said they weie entitled to know why the guarantee was so large. The association, however, was using money as a means to an end.

“The majority of bands in New Zealand to-day are suffering not from lack of experienced players, but from lack of conductors sufficiently well trained and experienced,” ho said. Most conductors of New Zealand bands were men who had risen from the ranks, and it was the object oi the association to create a fund which would later enable it to invite from England a man among the highest in the band world. The idea was that all the New Zealand conductors should meet visiting adjudicators and undergo a course of training for about a week. -After that the adjudicator would go round to . all affilia.tpd hands in ■ the Dominion- giving instruction. It might take one or two years. Finally, a contest would be held where a definite standard would lie set up. "If the association followed out that idea it would have done something really big of educational value for bands in New Zealand. He appealed to the executive members to spend their share of the profit from the contest, and ho was sure there would be a profit, in helping the band. The bands would create the profit and it was only fair that the money should be devoted to them rather than to unnecessary disbursements such as had been made in some other provinces.

In reply to an expression of doubt by Mr Eistall that accommodation might be hard to find in New Plymouth for the contest, the chairman assured Mr Estall that he would find no cause for complaint with accommodation at New Plymouth. The publicans -and proprietors of boarding houses were very public-spirited and would be willing to co-operate in every way. The executive would attempt to conduct the contest according to the best traditions of the past, and its objective, naturally, was to make its contest a highwater mark- in the Dominion for such fixtures.