WOOLSTON BAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 297, 13 November 1934, Page 4

WOOLSTON BAND

RETURN TO DOMINION

•Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. 12. “The band’s record has been almost entirely one of second places,” commented Mr J. G. Osborne, tour manager of the. Woolston Band, Christchurch, on that combination’s return from the Ballarat Band Festival by the Monowai this afternoon.

The band was placed second in the quickstep, second in the selections aggregate, and second in the championship aggregate. W. Stevenson* was placed second in the cornet championship and E. Williams second in the tenor trombone championship. One of Woolston’s leading cornetists, A. Partridge, had been taken ill just prior to the contest and was still in hospital when the others left for home. His illness left the band one man short. Mr Osborne said it had been disappointing to learn on arrival in Melbourne that the Melbourne Centenary Band Festival had been postponed until March, 1935. That was one of the festivals for which the Woolston Band had made the trip, and there was no chance of its going over again. It had cost between £ISOO and EIOOO to send the band across. Summed up, said Mr <7sborue. it could be said the the bands in Australia marched very well, particularly the B grade bands, but in musical technique, grade for grade the New Zealand bands were equally as good.