THE FEILDING CONCERT.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 74, 4 July 1877, Page 2

THE FEILDING CONCERT.

TO THE EDITOE. . Siß^-By thTe Tetfcerjof JSkTr- Macarth w, which' appearednn- your last impression,, calling.in .questioii'jny report, of the late' Feilding Concert I feel ..myself calleduporijto offer "gome i»markso aver* sipn to finding fault or hurting the. sensibilities of anyone' is sufficiently great to deter me ait all times from gratuitous^. : ly .censuring ;; a,nd, had , I considered ifc the parb of ah hbiiest critic to eithpl praise ox silenjfly pass over the rendition of certain cbmic , songs l m my report of the entertainment m have gladly done;the one- or t^he^dtheri /and so' have pleased .where -II hate ofvfended. -BiitiX hold ; that, to. be jworth anything; : criticism ; must -.be >>honest. Neither the: plaudits of an audience, nor, the= sanctionofva' cpmmmutyi should de-j ter the critic from' the ;eJU(^ise;of his own judgment. lam .wraFaware thafc the introduction „b£. buffoonery to toe*, ■concert-room iathrougtouj^h^^commuT; nity,~ backed, up ;i. : by a : , very ■vgefleral approval. But' wlierever else(the^legitimate sphere <bf this^ ciasiol^nt^rtainmenfr imay be; should lit^drshdMdit'not fiiid a; place in Ith© x concert ;,£ /To a repon- ■ siderattonaof -this questioni I .invite all ' wKbm-^l^naVe unintentidnailyaggrievedi 'is aii axiom, yrhich teaches tha^ ■vfhatever is not elevating to the taste arid morals mtfst be lbwering -there ii t ;nQ.^eutr^lj ground. Now although man^; maj^ enjoy spch mu^ic^ finicality a% ,peftains .to-th-ej comic farce or-the.after-i piece', fe i; vr ■•': :^uld%laim ; ?fbr:yit;any ele%vating .effect.; - Compal'efi-.with some, of/ the gems "<jf "poetry tbat' were- sung at vthetEe'ildifigjCorlcerfe it^^.wpiild;be; r>nked ■'Ipwi-'-'.^ jNjow .c6mes:the qtoestiorir Should it form part of the highest; class" of ;musicalr enjtertamutent'thAt .^e possess £ The conpert '.is..' an > ihstiiu^on regardedi; perhaps, with a more universal^nprovaE than any other Hnd of enter^ /taiTimerit^iPe^sbris of ; the strictest ret* f ligipus'principlei of ■ theliighestTespectaf bility and.most refined tasfej ■ look upon* it as a- means bt gratifying; the\r lore of :the jb'eautif jilfWithout any compromise of p^rinciple. x : Many : of these would nof^ visit- the theatre,' because of the associa^ tions, / : kndr . jpftentimes . questionablef '-■_ -character, vof ; the ; drajna> ISJ it well^ ithen, to ' lessen tlie distinctive ■features^ that pertain- to the ebncert, and breaki down the barriers that separate it front the stage^rto^^ introduce dramatic effects,] and these of the ipwer kind ? '-It seems* to me. that :the inevitable effect of so doing .will Tte^the vlbwering of the charac- \ ter.of bur ..musical "en tertaimneiits, and of. a- large amount Of sym- ; patny from them. d?hat important class of pjersons who have a conscieritious ob-. jectidn to the^ theatre, can no longer cpnr sisteiitly- attend :the concert when it, adopts the mieii and habiliments of the| stage. I firmly believe that such adop-g tion will have a deteriorating effect, ands -that it is foreign to the true genius ofg| -that high class musical entertainment tof which- this community . ought to aspire>?l and to wfiich >itrhas the capacity to at-^; tain. If, then, I have expressed : a strong- • Vdisapprovalof the;actipii of thecoficerjb ; cbmmittge^ and of thao bf urtfeie drawi- i atique> it Si because^ "l felt convinced^ that they were creatiiyg. a. precedent which., if followed but, would m time re?r -dupe i; ( whatj is^pwfji means, of gratifyiii^! .and cultivating ; inosfe»sthetic tast^. ; that -pla^s , bf , entertainnient!, the^ ; character of which;indicates its less antt bitioii s; object \ad captajulyimvuZgiis, andI; think .that all ,tvUl. admit.ijksfcif aT .transformatipn^is Ipreshadp^M, concertA j. committees c'anriot, be -itbo: careful as to I the nature the comicalities placed .upon their> programmes.. |I' think .that; : your cor^espondeiit ; wrilll^gree^ with me. !-; that his arguments scarfeely ipuch thiei question kt issue. His'reference to the« frill-clad leffg'of the pianqand the clothed ;■-. sLatuesithat . American: fmpdesty sug-f jgests, iare ': 'scarcely apppSitei, Prurient^, : -prudery; is 1 one; -thingV and _,_a .desire to- i; exclude, a certain; class of dramatic rer^ presentatioEffromvwhatis not its legiti^V; mate sphereiis.. quite another. I fail to see even i* parallel. Equally inapt is^; 'the'adage—'^Tp, the pure all things are ; ; j pure," by!, whichjhe would justify the^v action of the- ;com.mittee, ana vindicate^ ,the character oof thb.' comic songs-^; selected. TTndpubtedly this adage»| has unlimited power; for it mighfe:| be used as an apology for any ex— , cess- I—as1 — as a sanction for any indecorum.^ But;siirely m thjs world; there are such| antitheses a^ bright and wrong, and there^ is a law pf > .fiMess and propriety whose -| voice must fee heard above the jingling^ cadence of an aphorism. I think, Sir, 4 (that your correspondent,- hisvcolleagnesj 1 an.djthe talented gentleman whose songs-i I have adycirseiy critcised will after -alii, concede that it does nofrrequire eyessharp-w" enei )aj.;a.^ tl p/eudp;uHrd'i^ to see the bbjec^bns- that I have stated-. "1 If they will, themselves view the. matter> > apart from prejudice and m the light ot'| their own intelligence they will probably^ see that I haye not exaggerated the res-: ponsibility of those who qaterfprt^ mentaltasfesbf . the pubHc. . ' The pub^ f lie m this district have- repeatedly^ ;shown their high: appreciation of theV,9 best musical cpiji pqsitip ns,:and alth ough, p: it is alvvays well H;b reTjeve the graverj parts of a concert with thej gay and facetious, it is quite possible foi?^this: to bWidone- and done : adequately^" without turning any, part of the enteriv? tainment into a harlequinade,-7-L re-fr. main, very.truly^ , S ■■'■' :--" • ■ ?: ' ;^

TO THE EDITOB. Sic, — The Chairman of the Mana T ' watu'County Council shows himself m nis last report to the Council to have a great infirmity of temper, m addition, to a weakness for guaging the motives that influence those who are so unfortunate as to view matters from a different stand point than his own. I am surprised to find a meeting of _ the County Council prostituted by its • a place for circulating direct assertions and base insinuations of unworthy motives against a newspaper correspondent, or correspondents as ma^ happen to be -the case m the present instance. Who can tell the ' combination of motives that cause people to act m the way they do ? Yet the Chairman ' of- the / Manawatu County Council comes down with a report attacking a correspondent that he does not , .personally know, and attributes to him Various unworthy motives for writing' the letters that .have appeared from his pen as your M Own Correspondent " at Feilding. First,— ln writing as your paid correspondent at , Feilding I was m duty bound, to be faithful m -my comments ' on the items of news from here. But the Chairman of the County Council asserts that the object of the letters I you has-been "for purposes ol*furthering the separation movement of the Manchester and Kiwitea ridings. I profess to write as a paid correspon* dent m the interest of ,a newspaper, and it is libellous for the Chairman of the "County Council to assert, as he has'done, that I have" written for another purpose ; and his assertion is injurious to ■ me as a professional correspondent ; and, as you have published this libel on your own correspondent, I , believe it was done without noticing the injurious nature of' 1 the assertion submitted by the Chairman to the consideration of the Council. ' Secondly, another insinuation used" is that J accepted a statement of the working expenses of the MahaWatu Highways Board easily, because it appeared to coincide with my. desire. I protest that such • a charge as that is most damaging to the credit of a professional writer for the press. Lhad every reason to be" satisfied with the source of my information on that score, and yet I qualified the statement of the 'figure being exact by the observation " that if I was correctly informed," so that I did not vouch for the figure being exact. The Chairman of the Council closes his jreport by "trusting that the explanation he gave would show tliat though -certain items may be correct, yet any • conclusion may be arrived at by omit'tiflg what portions may be deemed obstructive to. the end desired" to be obtained." This is equal to chargiug your own correspondent wifh the deliberate falsification o£ a statement sent to you for publication, and I say it is not right for a gentleman occupying rthe position of Chairman "pi th"* County Council to take advantage of his position to promulgate libellous assertions and insinuations, knowing that "the' statements he made would be I never do ibled the " good intention" of those m the Council whose tender corns I may have touched, •but after the Chairman's charge of wilful falsification of a statement "by omitting items to "arrive at a •desired end, I may be prepared to - -point to the Chairman's figures as showing how items may be added to in--crease -the total amount, but as the 'Council is only adjourned until Wednes- , rday, and the question is now before it, I "sli&il , not- enter into the >. question of , ffigures just now, but, leave them to be , dealt with -by the Council, — except that I acknowledge an error m, my statement im so far as an oversight m omitting the charge* for maintenance of road from i i S.toney J&ujek to the,. Gorge, and 'l sup* ' , pose the .Gorge Ferry also ought to have ' jjfjbeeff included, but' those two items accidentally omitted will not very - much -alter the account ,of the proportionate amount of money abstracted f rom,--,th~e[ Manchester , and ;Xi,witea Hidings. There 'will ,*tillbe shown more than onehalf o£ the- revenue derived from tke two ridings proposing separation, to l>e" abstracted from and expended out of those . ridings. But my object, in writing. this letter 1b to notice that the County Council at its last sitting was made an instru-' r ' tn"ent ; to'give publicity to charges of a libellous nature, calculated to injure' in' .""the estimation' of your, .readers the reliability of news m the letters of , - . ; Yotte Own ;(Feilding) cobbespondent.