HAWERA BAND ECONOMY

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 4

HAWERA BAND ECONOMY

COUNCIL GIVING £5O LESS CONDUCTOR’S VALUE DISCUSSED. MAYOR USES HIS CASTING VOTE. Substantial reductions in subsidies to the Hawera Band were decided on by the Hawera Borough Council last night on the casting vote of the Mayor, Mr. J. E. Campbell. The Municipal Band subsidy was reduced from £lBO to £l3O and the Pipe Band from £lB to £lO. Messrs E. Dixon and H. N. Lester, of the Municipal Band committee, waited on the council. Discussion then and after the departure of the deputation was taken in committee. After the resumption of open meeting it was moved that all the business done in committee be confirmed, but Cr. A. K. North moved as an amendment that the business done in committee with the exception of the band question be confirmed. The amendment was carried on the casting vote of the Mayor. Cr. W. G. Strange moved and Cr. North seconded that the Municipal Band subsidy remain as at present. Cr. A. Reid moved as an amendment that the subsidy be reduced by £5Ol per annum, as heavy expenditure had to be met this year. The band was the consideration and not the bandmaster. If Mr. H. C. A. Fox went away they could get others quite as capable even if they did not suit everybody. Cr. Strange said he supported the present allocation because of the valuable work Mr. Fox had done in the schools and with other musical organisations. It would be difficult to secure a man who would voluntarily take such an interest. They would lose a valuable asset if their action .meant that Mr. Fox would possibly look for a position elsewhere. Cr. North said the council had set a policy that had raised the band to a high standard. If the subsidy were reduced the committee said it would be faced with losing Mr. Fox. Cr. E. K. Cameron said the musical standard of Hawera was perhaps higher than the borough could afford. He recognised the valuable educational work done by Mr. Fok, but said that if a. cut was to be made, now was the time. Cr. W. J. Bright said a proposal to reduce the. subsidy was directly antagonistic to the views of the council’s representatives on the band committee. The Mayor said ordinarily £lOO would be adequate for Hawera, but he realised the value of Mr. Fox. The council had a duty to keep down expenditure. He felt that even with the reduction they would retain the band and music in the schools would go on. Crs. North, Strange, Rickard, Bright and Walkley voted against the amendment, and Crs. Reid, Clapham, Butler, Cameron and the Mayor for it. The Mayor gave his casting vote for the amendment. , The Mayor moved and Cr. Reid seconded that the Pipe Band subsidy be reduced to £lO. 'Cr. North said that to be consistent he would move that the subsidy remain as before, and this was seconded by Cr. Rickard, but they were the only two to vote for it, the motion being carried.

Over 125,000 people attended the Auckland Winter Exhibition, which closed on Saturday evening after a season of ten days and nights, the final day's attendance being 15,000. This figure would have been higher but for the wet weather experienced on Saturday. Many children attended the exhibition, over 1800 having been conveyed by train in the ten days. In sympathy with the fall in the value of blatter on the London market the price in Auckland has been reduced by Id per lb. The new retail rates, with certain exceptions, will be Is Id per lb for finest and first grade and Is for second. The respective wholesale nett prices are lid and lOd.

The exhaustion of supplies of hoarded gold coins, reflected by the closing of several gold-buying shops which sprang up like mushrooms some months ago, following the rise in the price of gold, is mentioned in the annual report of the New Zealand/Numismatic Society. Another factor contributing to the closing of these businesses was the export duty of 12s 6d per oz placed on gold. The Wellington City Council derives about £60,000 a year from rents. This is the amount appearing in the estimates for the current year. It is expected that the petrol tax will provide the city with over £14,000, and licenses will produce about the same amount. The letting of the Town Hall produces about £2OOO a year. The total estimated expenditure for the year is £693,082, of which £493,687 is a fixed liability, leaving £199,395 controllable by the City Council.

A resident of Featherston, hearing a strange noise in his poultry yard recently, and thinking that thieves were abjout, communicated with the police by telephone. On their arrival they found a pheasant in the yard in a dying condition. On examination it was found That the bird had died through breaking its neck. It is surmised that the bird either struck a post in its flight, or, being startled while feeding in the scrub, caught its neck in a fork of manuka or gorse tree.

All bowling centres in New Zealand are to be informed by the New Zealand Bowling Association that they are to refuse permission for Sunday play. At the annual meeting of the association this decision was given in reply, to a request for an expression of opinion as to whether tournaments should be held on Sunday. In Wellington and other towns, although not with the approval of the centres, competitive games are played on certain greens on Sundays. “I am going to take a long shot and prophesy that in 10 years there will be only one county council in New Zealand, and that will be the Main Highways Board,” said the president, Mr. F. W. Johnston, at a meeting of the executive of the South Island Motor Union. Mr. Johnston later qualified this by saying that he meant one county council only so far as main roads were concerned, and that other roads and domestic matters would have to be controlled by the present county councils or road boards.

In reply to a suggestion by the New Zealand Small Farms League that free railway passes should be granted to. the league’s special inspection committee when investigating various areas, the Minister in charge of the small farms scheme, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, stated that it would not be possible to do that. “The organisation already set .up is sufficient to cope with the matter without incurring any additional expense in travelling by unofficial committees, the Minister added.

“The average daily consumption per capita works out at about 78 gallons, which is altogether too much, especially in the winter months,” stated the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Maddison), at a meeting of the Hastings Borough Council, when the works engineer reported that the water pumped last month amounted to 29,550,000 gallons. “It is quite evident that there are serious disruptions in cur water system, and it is hoped that shortly we will be able to detect these,” he said, - adding that the position was becoming very acute.