TE KUITI MUNICIPAL BAND.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 578, 21 June 1913, Page 3

TE KUITI MUNICIPAL BAND.

The Te Kuiti Band has been in existence for more than a year. Individuals who have not been connected with a band at sometime or other can have little idea of what this means in a new country town with a mov ing population. To say that there have been six men on the euphonium, each of whom has in his turn gone the way of the casual worker, may mean little to the man in the street, but is pregnant with deep signification to a band conductor. Musicians find their hobby, like Sinbad'a "Old Man of the Sea"— hard to get rid of. As with the wicked, there is no rest for the bandsman. Players of winter sports have a spell in summer; summer sports hibernate in winter. Even the Debating Society has a close season. j The bandsman's recreation allows of no hiatus. A bandsman who is not in his place in the practice room week in and week out all the year round is not worth his salt. The Te Kuiti Band —our band —has had far more than its share of misfortunes, and is just now passing through the crisis of its existence. From the start it has been short of playei'3. As might have been expect ad, several of those who joined the band originally soon gave up; others lasted longer, bet tired with time, while others sti 1 left the district. For a long time past the trombones and flugel horn have been silent. Mr Erickson has closed his saddlery business and is rusticating in the garden city—this deprives a tenor of its vocation. A baritone ceased its fitful efforts last when Mr Smith of G. and C.'s, left Te Kuiti, and this week one more cornet went to rest on the departure of Mr Charles Sowry for Whangarei. Within the week Messrs Read and Crombie of the Post Office leave for Hamilton and Wellington respectively, silencing an E flat bass and another cornet. Lastly, but more chiefly than leastly, it is on the tapis that Mr C. Bartley, the conductor, who, more than all others is responsible for the efficiency of the band, will leave to seek employment elsewhere. It is to be hoped that employers of labour in Te Kuiti will bear the band in mind when requiring assistants. Without a little more active aid than the band has had in the past it may to exist, and the town will be the loser. If any ex-bandsmen in Te Kuiti are hiding their melody-producing power under the figurative basket, there is an appeal in our advertisement columns which should be eloquent to them when read in conjunction with this article. May they do their duty like men I