BOYS’ BAND AND REVUE

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1932, Page 5

BOYS’ BAND AND REVUE

YOUNG AUSTRALIA LEAGUE. DOMINION VISIT ARRANGEMENTS. The Australian Boys’ Band, which was selected from over 40 bands to lead the pageant at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, will make a two months tour of the Dominion from December 21. Mr. H. Sydney, assistant-director for the tour, was at New Plymouth yesterday making arrangements for a visit to North Taranaki. The party, 20 of whose members are under 12 years of age, represents the Hurstville (Sydney) division of the Young Australia League and will be directed by Mr. Gladstone-Hill, while the drum-major and leader is an eight-year-old boy named Charlie Stanton. .„ T. Profits arising from the tour will be devoted to charitable institutions in the various places visited, such institutions to be determined by the local committee handling the Visit to each centre. Mr. Sweney said yesterday that the trip was not intended as a profit-making one but as a gesture of goodwill. The boys were not only a fine band but also a good revue and vaudeville party. The Dominion tour was arranged at a public meeting held at Christchurch in October. A Dominion executive of seven members (of which Sir Heaton Rhodes is the head) was elected to control the tour from Christchurch. The boys, it was stated, would give 44 concerts in 21 towns. Mr. Hill, who is in charge, directed the New Zealand tour of the New South Wales State Orchestra in 1919-20. The three cardinal principles of the league were love, service and tolerance, it was stated. From small beginnings in Perth, Western Australia, the league had developed at an amazing rate, so that now that it was an All-Australian organisation with divisions in every State. The movement was on much the same lines as the Boy Scouts, except that they sought to develop the arts. One of the purposes of the league was to encourage a more friendly interest between the various parts of the Empire and the English-speaking world generally. With that idea in mind the Young Australia League brought three groups of boys from the United States of America to study conditions in Aus 7 tralia, the first in 1909, the second in. 1913 and the third in 1919. In 1912, 67 Canadian boys were brought by the league to Australia, while in 1926 42 British boys toured Australia under the auspices of the league. The first party from the league to go overseas was in 1911-12, when a tour of the world was made. The second was in 1915-16, when a party called at New Zealand en route to Canada and the United States. The third, in 1924, made an Empire tour embracing the United Kingdom and Canada. A big overseas tour was conducted by the league in 1925, when 140 boys

toured' the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium. The most recent overseas venture took place in 1929, when 160 boys, representing the whole of Australia, made a seven months* tour of the United States and Canada. That was the biggest tour of boys carried out in the history of the world.

When the band was in America Mr. John Philip Sousa publicly appraised it as the “finest boys’ band in the world.” The cost of the Dominion tour will be £2500, and guarantees are being asked in each centre to be visited. In no instance has a tour resulted in loss, and no guarantors have ever been called upon for a penny. In the last 12 months the band has contributed £2OOO to various charitable institutions in Sydney and in a three weeks’ school vacation they netted £6OO on a tour in the north of New South Wales, the proceeds being given to the Sydney Hospital., There are 38 boys' and two adults in fee band. The bandmaster is Mr. B. W. Caten, professor at the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, who was a member of the Conservatorium Orchestra which toured New Zealand under Henri Verbruggen in 1920. Mr. Caten was also a member of the famous Scots Guards Band.

It was considered at the initial meeting at Christchurch that the time for such a tour was most opportune. The organisation was one which would have a tremendous appeal on account of the youthfulness of its members, as well as the excellence of its items. Considerable publicity would be given to such a tour throughout Australia, and thus tourist travel would be. stimulated. The Governor-General of Australia (Sir Isaac Isaacs) is sending a message from the youth of Australia through Lbrd Bledisloe to the youth of New Zealand. Mr. Ji S. Lyons, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, is sending four trees to be planted, one in each of the four centres, and Sir Philip Game, Governor of New South Wales, is giving the band a public farewell at Sydney on December 16. The band will arrive at Auckland on December 20 and the series of concerts will commence the following day.