VISIT OF AIR FORCE BAND

Southland Times, Issue 24440, 21 May 1941, Page 4

VISIT OF AIR FORCE BAND

OVER £3OO RAISED FOR PATRIOTIC FUND It is estimated that as a result of the two days’ visit of the band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force to Invercargill a sum of over £3OO has been raised for the Southland Provincial Patriotic Fund. The takings at the concert given by the band for the fund in the Civic Theatre last night amounted to over £lOO, and to this amount there are booking fees to be added. In addition, immediately after the interval a collection was taken up and this yielded what was described as the very satisfactory sum of £55. The dance held in St. Mary’s Hall on Monday night in aid of the Patriotic Fund, and at which members of the Air Force band provided the music, brought in £lOO. Other sums still to come to hand are expected to raise the total to over £3OO. During the interval at the concert last night Mr W. Grieve, chairman of the executive of the Southland Provincial Patriotic Fund, thanked the band for the assistance that it had given to the fund. He hoped that it would pay yet another visit to Invercargill. Mr Grieve also thanked those who had extended hospitality to the bandsmen in their homes, the local bands for having paraded that evening and marched to the theatre, and Mr P. Linton Hodge for the valuable work he had done in connection with the visit of the Air Force Band.

“After all we are only doing our job and it is a small job compared with that which is being done by the men we represent, the men of the Royal Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force,” said Flight-Lieutenant Gladstone Hill, conductor of the band, in reply. “I will say that 99.9 per cent, of our giving to patriotic funds in New Zealand does not mean that we have to do without the things in life we enjoy. I know that I have never had to go without a meal because of any donation I have made to the patriotic funds. Apart from the fact that we have been saddened by casualties we hardly know that there is a war on in New Zealand. We live in peace here and have our homes. In the Old Country people are being bombed out of their homes. The least that we can do is to give liberally.” Flight-Lieutenant Hill thanked the people of Invercargill for their reception of the band. He said it was the finest they had had in any town in New Zealand.

The band will leave this morning on its return north.