RECEPTION TO MR J. C. WILLIAMSON.
A number of loading citizens and lovers of the dram* gathered in the boar>l room of His Majesty's Threat re on the 13th to welcome Mr J. C*. Williamson. the well-known theatrical manager, who arrived in Dunedin the previous evening. The gathering was proposed by the directors of His Majesty's Theatre, the majority of whom were present The Hon. T. Fergus presided, and in proposing the toast of the guest made a hearty acknowledgment of (he merit*: and enterprise of Mr William°on as a manager, hi* premier position as such in Australasia, and the wholesonieness and excel-
lence of his productions, which, were always worth going to see. Mr Bathgate and Mr R. W. Richards also spoke, the latter reviving reminiscences of the theatre in Sydney. Mr "Williamson, in reply, touched on the fact that though he had been asked by more than one Cabinet Minister to visit New Zealand he had been nnabJe until recently to do so. Having come to the colony he had received a -welcome even more hearty than he had been led to expect. He had not been in Dunedin for 25 years, but Dunedin and the colony of New Zealand he now regarded as part of his territory, and he made a point v of producing plays here on the same scale as in Sydney, and, as far as possible, with the same company. Mr Williamson then went on to speak of the first large company he had brought to the city in the days when New Zealand was marked as dangerous on the maps of managers. He contrasted this with the companies he was now able to send round, and gave a list of the plays he intended to produce in the near future.
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Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 61
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297RECEPTION TO MR J. C. WILLIAMSON. Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 61
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