AN AWKWARD DILEMMA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9397, 18 March 1909, Page 3

AN AWKWARD DILEMMA.

* Amongst the sheaf of dry corresdealt' with- by the New Brighton Borough Council at, Its meeting on Monday night, was an 1 unusually choice morsel of humour. The marine borough possesses a , Municipal Band and also a Volunteer iFire Brigade. the deputy - .superintendent of the brigade being :*he sole and solo player of one of the ■instruments in the baud. On a recent Sunday a municipal church parade was held, at which the v brigade, and band were ordered to attend. This thrust the unfortunate deputy-superintendent bandsman between the horns of a dilemma, for he had either to discard his shining helmet and glittering axe or listen to some other Orphehs playing his particular lute. Xn his choice the hand won, but the brigade could not ■allow any of its members to play second fiddle, or any other kind of instrument to the ladder aud, hose contingent, so they promptly called a meeting and requested the deputysuperintendent to send in his resignation, on the ground (so the - secretary’s letter stated) that it was impossible for the offender “to serve two public bodies!” In this quandary the deputy-superintendent appealed to the Borough Council, but that august assemblage, although it seriously discussed the question as to the right or otherwise of the brigade to - visit its displeasure on the nnfornnate .deputy-superintend-ent, refused to be drawn into deciding which was the elder brother of Its precocious offspring, andj, merely offered the opinion that as the deputy-superintendent could not parade with a coruscating helmet and shimmering trombone at one and the same time, he had ohosen he better part.—Press.