RETURNED TRAVELLERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3258, 15 October 1897, Page 3

RETURNED TRAVELLERS.

WHAT BANDMASTER HERD SAW DURING HIS TRIP.

Mr T. Herd, tho popular chief of the Wellington Garrison Band, has done a good deal of sight-seeing since he left Wellington in February last until he returned on Tuesday night. II tving reached England by the F. and O. Company’s m iguifiront new steamer China, Air and Airs Herd spent about eight ffooks in London. During that tihie they mafic too most of their opportunities for looking around. They visited Westminster Abbey and tho Tower dt London, and on Ono of the public days walked Lurmigh WUt.!»uv Castle, where you may see gold plate to the value of a million and a half of money, and whore tho tomb of the Duke of Clarence is liointud Obt in r/hd corirtyard. They were in Loudon for tho Jubilee procession, and had a splendid view of that great pageant. Haying been sunt tickets for ono of tho private stands at Buckingham. Palace, they uaw the starting of the procession from that vantage point, and were able later on to get a fine visit of llle /Spectacle from High street. “The great thing that struck mo about the. London crowd,” said Air Herd in conversation with a Tims representative yesterday, " was its orderly character. The sight altogether was a memorable one. as you can well imagine. London was gorgeously decorated, and tho illuminations were most .beautiful. Qf the mottoes prominently displayed everywhere about the city, the * one that caught thy eye Was this, ‘A good innings, wqll played—oo,. not out.’ And the Queen,” eoiitihifod Sir Herd, “looks good for 10 years more ” He did not see the naval display at Spithead, but he saw the Aldershot review, and was much impressed with the appearance of the New Zealanders.

“X went down to tho range to see the Bialoy team of Now Zealanders at piactico, said he. “It was a thousand pities that they did not win tho Kolaporo Cup, and they Would hdve won it but for an unlucky change of riind; which occurred after tho \ ictorians fired, and thus handicapped the Now Zealanders, who wero bothered dreadfully.” Tho travellers were present on one of tho miscellaneous days at the Handel Festival at Crystal Palace;, whore there wore 3uUU porforniers, including about 300 instrumentalists, under the well-known Baton of August Manus. Tho soloists at the festival wore Madame Albani, Santley, Edward Lloyd, Miss Ella Russell, Miss Clara Butt, Miss Marian McKenzie, Barton McGuokin (now in Sydney with the Amy Sherwia Company) and Andrew Black. At the Royal Albert Hall Air Herd had hoped to hear Mada.uio Patti, hut it was announced that she had met with a slight accident to her eye on the railway joiirney from Wales to London, so Madame Albani appeared in lidr, stead-.;. At Covent Garden “ TanrthAUsJr ” ahd " lies IlUguouotri ” were performed, with Madame Calves and the two De Keskas in tho leading roles. While atthe Royal Albert Hall Mr Herd enjoyed the violiu-playihgrtf Herr Johannes Wolff, oue.of tho leading violinists of tho old world. lie also heard Miss Ada Croisley, tho Australian contralto, whose success at Home is how completely assured. At the Imperial Institute he heard the Celebrated Strauss orchestra of 70 instruments, but the best orchestral band ho heard was that at the Queen’s Hull, Langham place. This band, conducted by Henry J. Wood, contains 103 members, tho chosen of thfi London musicians, and Ml oil 1 performance of TehaikOWski’s “Fifth Symphony” Mr Herd describes as magnificent. At Besson and Co.’s, Easton road, Mr Herd personally superintended the manufacture of some of J.ho hew instruments for his own Band. After hHvliig listened to many of the military and amateur bands in England, he expresses tho opinion that that of the Royal Artillery is the best, and of the amateur bands ho speaks very highly of the celebrated Black Dyke, of Yorkshire. and tho Wyke Temperance and Rotherham Temperance Bands. In his opinion the best of all he listened to was the 28th Infantry Band in Paris, belonging to one of the French Regiments of the lino. " Tho 28th Infantry Baild,*’ ho says, " uses large numbers of tbo saxophone (a reed instrument which is like a clarinet, except that it is built in brass). There are not many of these inatrfimpnta iti England, But they fire coming into more general use there; and with regard to the work of the French band of which I speak, I can say that it was very fine indeed, except perhaps that there was an absence of deep bass effects." “ How does tho work of tho bands in Now Zealand compare with that of the amateur bauds in England ?” , “ Three or four Of the New Zedland bauds I think would Bo fairly able to hold their own,” Was tho reply—" that is, of Course, except so far as the soloists are concerned.” At Earl’s Court Air Herd was present at ohe Of. the bofitestS—in which, it may ho teniarked, each band is limited, to 24 performers. The test piece was “ Taunhauser,” arranged from Wagner’s opera by Herr Kappoy. It was a close contest, the Wyke Temperance boating the Black Dyke Band by one point, with Batley Old close up. Mr Herd explained the improvement in the trombones as supplied to the Wellington Garrison Band. This improvement Consists of a socket spring, which enables certain notes to bo produced at the home position on the instrument—that is, when the slide is closed up. This is tho invention Of Mr Guilmavtin, the tuner for Besson and Co., and the finest player in England. “Here is an instrument which will revolutionise flute - playing;” said the bandmaster, fts he produced a picture of the Giorgl flute. “ This instrument has no keys, has an extra number of holes, and has a full rich tone, beside which it is wonderfully cheap, only .£2 2s, as compared with .£2O or 440 for an ordinary flute. I was only just reading that Mr Arthur Greene, the fliiteplayer of the Grenadier Guards, has giveh it a trial, with great suoeess ” Mr and Airs Herd did not stay in London entirely while in England. They went to the Midland counties, seeing all the sights cn route, and at Haworth, in Yorkshire, were the first New Zealanders to sign their, names in the house of the Bronte family, inspecting also the curious Bronte museum, to which purpose one room of the house is devoted. They visited Paris, and of Paris Mr Herd cannot say too much. They were living near tho renowned gardens of the Tuileries j they visited tho LoUVre, or National Gallery; and they were conducted through the home of the celebrated Gobelins tapestry. “.The place where this tapestry is made,” says Mr Herd, "is Under the cohtrol q£ tHe Government, and the meii employed there are sworn to secrecy. Nobody knows the details of the process of manufacture. Tho men working a carpet have before them some large oil - painting ; this is copied into the design, the painting being uhrollod as it is required, and a carpet 10ft long by 7ft broad will take three years to complete. A long course of training is necessary for the workmen, and after a few years at the work a man loses his sight or breaks down from the strain.”

. The Church of the Madeleine, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Place do I’Opera for a performance of “ Faust,” the Trocadero, the Eiffel Tower, the scene of the terrible fire at the charity bazaar the Place Vendome, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, the racecourse at Longchamps, the ‘Boia do Boulogne, the Palace at Versailles, the tomb of the great Napoleon, the Paris Boulevards—all these andotherplaccawero includedin thesoheme of sight-seeing. Mr Herd is full of information about the height of the Eiffel Tower, to the top of which Smith, the Rochdale steeplejack, climbed, and stood on the ball at the pinnacle, 985 ft high, to he looked up as a lunatic when ho came down, and released only after some difficulty; about the size of the Opera House, the largest in the world, covering nearly three acres, although it contains fewerseatsthan La Soalaat Milan ; about the Place do la Concorde, where the figures representing the mourning of France over the loss of Alsace and Lorraine are laden with wreaths annnally, the French people declaring that they, will continue to do so until the lost provinces are restored ; about the Trianon, and the carriage of Charles X., costing £43,000 and adorned with solid gold figures and gems ; about the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise, with its 18,000 monuments, where are to bo seen the graves of Chopin, and Rossini, and Auber, and Cherubini, and of the French statesmen down to M. Casimir - Porier, and of every other notable man of Prance who has passed away. And as he talked of this cemetery, Mr Herd showed a remarkable photograph—that of the Chapel of Bones at Malta. There have been collected together the bones of the Maltese who fell in war, and along the walls, and fringing the arches, and lining the beams and buttresses, are skulls and bones to the number of 2000, a flight of steps leading down to the chapel, which is lighted only from the doorway above. One of the marvellous sights of the world, this awful collection of dead men’s bones about the altar where in the first days of November every year service for the dead is offered iu the gloomy chapel. From the big collection of photographs Mr Herd produced others, hut that of this weird chapel of skulls in the far-away Island of Malta it is which leaves the deep impression, . . •