CHAIR OF MUSIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9016, 31 March 1888, Page 3

CHAIR OF MUSIC.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, The letters of "Citizen" and of "Musical" will, I am confident, be read with pleasure by all who have the interests of our University College at heart. We shall not all view the question from the same side, but we shall all regret the extraordinary decision of the College Council, by which a Chair of Music has been founded, and that at a moment when the College sorely needs the goodwill of everyone. It is no secret that next session an attack will be made on University College by those who think that in the presence of the vigorous retrenchment in primary education, the statutory vote of £4000 to this college ought to be struck off the Estimates. The argument is not logical, but that is unfortunately no guarantee that it will not prevail with our legislators ; and while this is the position, for the College Council to throw money away on a chair of music is to court disaster. Surely it ought not to be difficult to find more useful employment for their funds. There is little or no provision for the convenience of students attending lectures at University College, more than half of whom are ladies ; there is no course of lectures for law students, none for medical, students, none on the theory and practice of education for our young teachers. Is music to have precedence over such subjects, and is Auckland piano-strumming at the height of the depression to invite comparison with Nero fiddling when Rome was burning —I am, &c., Henry Perctvae. 29th March, 1888. TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —I am glad to see this matter taken up by "Citizen," as it is one that should court the fullest inquiry. The appointment should not have been made, as it exists, but ought to have been publicly competed for by men of musical standing scattered over the colony, many of whom are doubtless possessed of qualification eminently fitting them for the position, and who are now discouraged and disheartened by an act of favouritism as discreditable as it is unfair. In England I believe the position is tenable only by the possessor having a musical degree. Has the new appointee that qualification? If not, how can he confer that which he has not within' himself ? I have no hesitation in saying such hole-and-corner work may have a disastrous effect in driving away men of ability to seek elsewhere that recognition of their services denied them here, and who will not be silent' on the questionable ways and means that characterise the doings of some of our public bodies. If there is any means whereby this decision can be revoked, and the appointment made in a straightforward and honourable manner, by all means let it be done, and by so doing, remove the stigma that rests upon one ana all the members of the Council.— am, &c., Another Citizen.