THE COMPETITIONS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume VLI, Issue 3385, 23 September 1935, Page 5

THE COMPETITIONS

PAEROA AMATEUR FESTIVAL COMMENTS OF JUDGES The competitive portion of the Paeroa amateur musical competitions festival was brought to a close on Thursday evening of last week with a concert that proved a fitting climax to an excellent series. Of the three concerts popular opinion gives this one the first place. The standard of performance was exceptionally high and the variety of entertainment left nothing to be desired.

The range of music extended over pianoforte items, vocal solos and duets and choral numbers; elocution was varied by tiny tot’s recitations, humorous items and impromptu speeches; physical culture was demonstrated in exhibitions of fancy drill and physical drill; and colour was lent to the programme in various character studies. The large audience was attentive and appreciative, assisting competitors by the sympathetic way in which it entered into the spirit of the evening. Miss Mona Hawthorne, announcing her awards in the elocutionary sections expressed regret that the festival had reached its conclusion. She said that the sustained interest of the public bore testimony to the worth of the enterprise and she thought everyone would agree that the talent brought out had eclipsed all expectations. Miss Hawthorne asked that interest in correct speaking and reciting should not be allowed to fall off now that the competitions were over. She urged encouragement in school and at home in reading aloud saying that teachers and parents should guide the child to natural expression rather than direct it to forced reciting.