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New Zealand Mail, Issue 772, 17 December 1886, Page 23

During November, seventeen estates of deceased persons were placed under the eharge of the Public Trustee. The most valuable is estimated as under £450; the others are small, none being over £25.

® We have been favored with the perusal, of a song in MS., composed by Mr Alfred Hill, of this city, one of the well-known musical family. It is a clever and melodious setting of the poem “The Organist,” with a tasteful and varied accompaniment for pianoforte, the whole being very creditably worked out. There are some slips here and there in the writing ; for instance, the notation is wrong in one or two chromatic passages, the composer having fallen into the error of supposing A-sharp and B-fiat to be the same note. These are so on the piano as a matter of convenience, but not in the voice, or on the violin, or in harmony, and they represent totally different tonalities. But while as a matter of strict candour we mention these defects, we feel bound to award much praise to the song, which is all the more remarkable as being the production of a lad of, we believe, only 16 years. He is a musician of bright promise, and we are pleased to hear that there is a prospect of his receiving a thorough musical training in Germany. If so, he ought, with his natural gifts, to have a brilliant career befor him.