SUNDAY EVENING CONCERTS.

Southland Times, Issue 18857, 24 June 1920, Page 2

SUNDAY EVENING CONCERTS.

To the Editor. Sir, —The action of the Invercargill Town Council in the matter of the Sunday evening concerts astonishes one. Just imagine! The Council stipulates that such concerts shall not begin till 8 o’clock! No wonder “Disgusted Bandsman” complains. Should concerts be held under such conditions as your correspondent foresees a stampede on the opening of the doors would be inevitable. If only the Council would allow a charge to be made a stampede would not be so serious a matter. The rush at the doors could be held up: but how could you check a stampede with a collection box? Lovers of music on entering the place where it is dispensed have often a soul above pecuniary matters and have no eyes to see such a mundane thing as a collection box. I sympathise therefore very sincerely with “Disgusted Bandsman,’ 'and I imagine he has struck the right nail on the head when he lays the blame of the obstructionist. policy in the Council on the shoulders of the Scotch and Irish councillors. I shouldn’t at ail be surprised if he is right also in thinking that certain “wowscristic” bodies are implicated in the affair. And the remedy he proposes will commend itself to most. Turn this obstructionist element out of the Council. I approve—especially the Scotch element. The suggestion sets one thinking. If we look back to the early history of Southland-—Murikiku as it was called —what do we find? The incurbable Scotch, of course. And what do we discover the slate of matters to have been ? Had the electric trams come into existence ? Were there roads and bridges even ? Had the people the civilising blessing of a brass band? 1 fear all these questions must be answered in the negative. And who is to blame ? The answer is not far to seek. The Scotch people must bear the blame. And if Southland and Invercargill are not even now up-to-date the explanation undoubtedly is that the descendants and representatives of the unprogressive early settlers are still in evidence, holding back the wheels of progress. One cannot but. be amazed on getting to know something about the manner in which these early settlers lived and moved and had their living. How they spent their Sundays tor example. We find that after attending to home duties of a Sunday morning, milking their cows etc., it was quite a usual thing for them to set out and trudge through bush country and across bridgeless creeks, mile after mile and for what purpose? To listen to the civilising music of a brass band? No: but to meet in some kitchen, barn or shed with other Scots and listen to a long sermon by a minister who had come in like manner to preach to them. And, after holding their “kirk” meeting, they would trudge back home again, the strains of martyrdom, alas Kilmarnock, lingering in their memories and affording them their only cheer as they went. Ami the dull evenings they must have spent when thy got home—sitting round the fire and re-hearing the sermon, or puzzling each other with question and answer from the Shorter Catechism. One shudders to think of it. How different from our modern way of spending our Sundays! We lie in bed till mid-day, then loaf about home or the street corners and if there is a band concert we go to listen to the music. That’s something like a way to spend a Sunday. And we need more of that sort of thing—especially music. Music, the poet has sung, hath charms to soothe even the savage breast, how much more the breast of an enlightened, square-headed colonial. So let us have the civilising influences of music, especially on Sundays when time hangs heavily on our spirits. Think what music has done for the world where it hits been made a specialty. Think what it has done for music-loving Ger I mean for countries that are music-loving. Better attend a band concert on a Sunday evening than go to church to listen to the reading of an antiquated Bible and the preaching of an effete gospel and the teaching of a standard of moral living which people dislike. Get the young people away from the churches by all means rod induce them to spend their Sunday evenings at band concerts. The young people who are the hope of the world. There is a sentiment somewhere like this: “Train up the young to go to the band concerts and when they are old they will not depart, from it.” By the way, there is only one passage • in “Disgusted Bandsman’s” letter that I am not quite satisfied with. He speaks of a “stampede” that took place on the occasion of a concert that commenced at 8 o’clock as being “disgraceful for a Sunduj evening.” But why on a Sunday evening more than any other evening? I should have thought that “Disgusted Bandsman” would have been superior to any such supersticious feeling about Sunday. Oh, T remember —it interfered with the collecting of the threepences. That’s all right. In conclusion, for the comfort of “Disgusted Bandsman” and others, I may be allowed to say that the Invercargill Town Council is not the only council behind the age in the matter of Sunday evening concerts. Some four or five years ago the Dunedin Town Council gave leave to a band to hold such concerts, and would any level-headed colonial believe .it, all the “wowscristic” bodies —Church of England, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, etc., attended at the next meeting and the council was persuaded to

g=- " - ■" 1 - '% withdraw the permission. So let “Disgusted Bandsman” not be unduly discouraged. “Time and patience” the proverb says, “turns the mulberry leaf into silk.” But by all means get those Scotch and Irish back numbers turned out of the Council and get a few square-headed colonials to take their places and then let the bands play. To conclude a letter already so long as to run the risk of finding a place in the Editor’s waste-paper basket, here are my sentiments: —Let Invercargill flourish by the playing of the bands on Sundays.—l am, etc., TWEEDLEDUM.