GRENADIER GUARDS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 January 1935, Page 6

GRENADIER GUARDS

THEIR TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND

MAY NOT BE FINANCIAL

CHRISTCHURCH, January 10,

It i a probable that the tour of New Zealand by the baud of his Majesty s Grenadier Guards, which will be concluded next week after visits to centres i n the' North Island, will not be a financial success. Mr Claude Kingston, who is managing the tour for j. and N. Tait, Ltd., said yesterday that there was a possibility that after the visits still to be paid to Napier, Gisborne, and Rotorua, the expenses of the tour might be very nearly met; but there "a,s the risk of wet weather interfering with the open air performances to be given in those places. Mr Kingston said that the attendance ah the trotting grounds at Addington during the visit of the band to Christchurch was a record for the tour.

Mi- Kingston wished to make it n-lear, however, that any loss on the New Zealand tour would be accepted by his company as part of the inevitable risk attaching to tours of this injure. As a concert director, he had felt it a great privilege to have brought the hand from London to Ndw 'Zealand. Whether or not the tour proved to he a financial success ;the band was certainly one of the happiest organisations with which he had ever been associated, and its members would carry back to England the happiest memories both of New Zealand and Australia.

Mr Kingston said that there had apparently been some misunderstanding by people in New Zealand of the purpose of the tour. The "oids ‘‘under the auspices of the New Zealand and Australian Governments” had led people to believe that the tour had been financed by the New Zealand Government. This was not the case. The words had meant merely that the governments had been responsible for the procuring of the band; but t,hey had not financed the tour in any way. The financial guarantee and the direction of the tour had been undertaken by J. and N. Tait, Ltd. The governments had been mentioned because the hand had come to New Zealand and Australia only by arrangement between ’the War Office and the governments of the two countries.

The expenses of the tour had been very .high, Mr Kingston said. He had been inundated with inquiries from different parts of the Dominion, asking that they should be included in the tour. As an example, he mentioned that a special train had had to lie chartered between Oh-maru and

Greymoutli, the cost amounting to the ordinary first-class fares and 25 per cent in addition. For the journey from Greymouth •to Picton service loan? had been chartered, tine total expenses amounting to £IBO. A dart from 'the travelling expenses there was always the risk of rain when performances were to be given

in the open. The bad weather in Greymouth at the present time would result in disappointment both to the public and tho company.