QUICK WAY TO WEALTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21806, 22 May 1934, Page 5

QUICK WAY TO WEALTH

MUSIC IN THE STREET SYDNEY REVELATIONS [WHOM our own correspondent] Sydney;' Hay 10 At the .height of the depression Sydney became famous throughout Australia for its street musicians. Dressed iu tattered clothes, they played all sorts of instruments and pestered tho passers-by with rattling boxes. Because it "Wtts> generally recognised that times were hard, the police were tolerant, and ib was because no action was taken by the authorities that itinerant musicians flocked to Sydney and there established themselves in "business." X sually the musicians presented such pai betic figures that the people were gei.erous, and it is on record that many of them made small fortunes. But the "good old days" are no more, for stories thai reached the police made it evident that the licence that had been given was abused. Matters came to a head, more or less, when a well-known identity, who for years played an accordeon in Circular Quay, died, and it was revealed that he owned considerable property on the North Shore. Then there was a group that visited the by-streets and lanes of the city, attired in appropriately ragged clothing. They would sing and play for five minutes or so, and then they would rattle a great box and solicit coins from the windows above them. Usually they were greeted with a shower of money, and doubtless many of the coins were given in the hope that they would pass on. The reason for the-giving did not worry the musicians. The police discovered that when their day's work was over the young men would retire to a fine car which they had parked in the city. Later they woidd appear, well-groomed and pros-perous-looking. That they were prosperous there is 110 doubt. It is 12 months since they were last "heard, and the conclusion has been drawn that they have retired to a life of greater ease. Many other melody-makers have roamed the streets at different times, but their occupation has been made more difficult on account of prosecutions. It is uflawful to do anything that will cause a crowd to congregate, and the police have found it a simplo matter to act under this particular clause. One band employed two collectors. The street musician who goes through the Sydney policy stations now is mostly of the tin whistle type, but even ho has pockets full of pennies and threepences. On the is not sorry to lose its street musicians.