NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19135, 1 April 1924, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION.

At the last meeting of the directors of the Now Zealand and South Seas Exhibition Company it was decided to write to tile High Commissioner, 1 (Sir James Allen) in London ashing liitn to make in<inines whether it was possible to secure the services of a first-class military regimental ban-!, and, if so, what would bo the cost and conditions of engagement. The directors’ first choice for such inquiry naturally fell upon the Coldstream or Grenadier Guards Banda, which, with their historic records, would be certain to appeal to Exhibition visitors. For the Auckland Exhibition of 1913 the services of the Royal Artillery Band were secured, and. although the expense of bringing the members out from England was very considerable, the venture in the end proved a success and fully warranted the expense involved. The Music Committee of the Exhibition was somewhat evenly divided on the matter owing to the question of music having two aspects—the first being that the Exhibition afforded an opportunity of providing music-lovers with an exceptional treat in the way of a specially qualified orchestra- This view, no doubt, has much to say for itself, as after all an Exhibition has its educational side calling for serious consideration, and it was argtied that if the arts section of visitors was catered- for by bringing together at great expense a high-class collection ot pictures and works of art, the music section nhould equally place before its adherents a similarly high-class educational and entertainment element. On the other hand the attractions of a first-class band for tho multitude is an established fact the world over, and this carried with it, in respect of tho Exhibition, tho financial aspect, as tho more visitors who pass through the turnstiles the better for tho Exhibition treasury', and it was recognised that the Grenadier Guards Band would bo a most powerful and lasting attraction.