THE TOWN HALL AND ORGAN. Are They for Use or Show?

Free Lance, Volume VII, Issue 351, 23 March 1907, Page 6

THE TOWN HALL AND ORGAN. Are They for Use or Show?

MR. Maug'Jian Barnett spoke the language of common-sense at the annual meeting of the Choral Society on Friday night. With money bonowed at the ratepayers' expense a costly Town Hall has been put up and the finest organ that could be procured has been set up in it. For whdt purpose? Ostensibly to supply a felt want and also to eaten- foil the aesthetic tastea of the community. But. for all the use that is made of either hall 01 organ, the money Mould have been better spent m some othei dnection. • • • The tiuth is, as Mr. Barnett pointed out, the Oity Corporation is defeating its own intentions by charging an absindly high pirice to local people foi the u.ve of the hall. It is> all very ' well to ask a rental of £15 a night from the tiavelhng bhowman. who is here to-day and away to-morrow. It is quite a different thing to ask the same stiff rate from a body of citizens who are not seeking their own emolument and Are engaged in some laudable public undertaking. There might just as well be no Town Hall at all if amateur musical or dramatic or elocutaonary societies are asked' a prohibitive price for the use of it. • » • Another consideration to be borne in mind is the loss of revenue. If a reasonable rent were a-sked, both the Town Hall proper and tne concert

chamber might be an constant requisition, instead of being only in occasional u&e. It is all very well to stiak out for a big fee, which you may get onoe oi twice a week, but it is bettei stilL to have an as^med revenue arising fiom regulai and systematic use of a building that was meant to accommodate the public. • • • The disuse of the oigan is the most flagiant stupidity of all. Wliat conceivable sense is there in spending 15000 on so fine an insta ument to beep it looked up? If the City Council will not of its own motion organise legular weekly recitals at popular prices, why not offer inducements for the local organists to do so? Not much in the way of practical retui n is to be expected f1 om oigan recitals of a sporadic nature. If the public aie to be educated into the habit of attending them they imust be given regularly and! systematically. In that way the laigest amount of good will be achieved, and it will prove in the long ran to be the suiest way also of making the organ pay foi itself.