VENUE OF NEXT CONTEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22068, 26 September 1933, Page 8

VENUE OF NEXT CONTEST

LIKELY TO BE WELLINGTON. REFERENCE TO DUNEDIN FUNDS. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, September 25. The president of the New Zealand Brass Bands' Association (Mr H..D. Bennett) states that the next band contest is likely to be held in Wellington in February. No definite decision had been arrived at because the city of Wanganui had made an application to have the contest held at Cook's Gardens. If it was decided that the contest should be held there it would be in that centre for the second time running in the North Island. Mr Bennett said, however, that he thought th-j venue would be Wellington. Mr Bennett said that the association, which is the mouthpiece of all the bands in the country, decided at the last annual conference that all future contests should be held by the association itself with the help of local committees and that all profits resulting from them should be at the entire disposal of the executive, to b 3 distributed as it thinks fit in the interests of the competing bands and the association itself. The next contest could only be held under those conditions. In previous years, Mr Bennett said, the contests had been held by local committees, and in some instances substantial profits had been made and credited to the bank accounts of the local committees, there to lie in some cases for many years awaiting another contest. The bands had at last rebelled against the proceeds of their activities being Uius tied up, hence the decision made at the last conference. Mr Bennett said that the 1934 contest had been offered to Palmerston North and a very strong committee had been set up to conduct it, but he regretted tc> say that he had apparently utterly failed to explain the conditions satisfactorily and the Palmerston North committee had subsequently declined to accept the responsibility. In the case of the offer to Palmerston North full compliance with the new policy had not been insisted upon, and this probably accounted for the misunderstanding. It is understood that a full meeting of members of the executive consisting of representatives from both islands, some 12 in all, met in Wellington on Saturday, when all decisions were unanimously arrived at. Wherever the contest for next year is to be held the whole of the profits will, be disbursed at the discretion of the parent body. Referring briefly to a press report from Dunedin published a few days ago regarding the disposal of the old eontest fund, Mr Bennett said that it was quite true that a suggestion, not a demand, was made to the old band contest committee in that city that in view .of the decision to change the policy the accumulated funds might quite reasonably be handed over to the bands. It had been explained since that a large portion of the dormant asset had been the result of direct contributions by the citizens of Dunedin. The Band Contest Committee had also written to say that the press report was not authorised by it and was therefore presumably merely an effort by an enterprising publicity agent.