PIANO WANTED FOR WOMEN'S REFORMATORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18576, 26 September 1928, Page 11

PIANO WANTED FOR WOMEN'S REFORMATORY.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —Knowing the readiness with which you allow your columns to be used for appeals for deserving causes, I venture to ask you to give publicity to this one. It is to ask for assistance in getting a piano for the Women's Reformatory at Addington. There is a piano there already, but it is very ancient and now almost unplayable. A piano in such an institution is not a luxury but a necessity, and the state

of the present one. worn out, not by indiscriminate playing, but bv long use at concerts and church services, proves how important it is in the institution. Regular concert parties visit, the reformatory, and the audience appreciates and eagerly looks forward to the concerts, but the piano is now so decrepit that it is feared that the concerts will' have to be discontinued. This would be a disaster for the women and a set-back to the work. A similar appeal was made some _ time ago for the men's prison and met with a ready response, and I am sure that this will likewise be kindly received, especially by Canterbury women, and I am hoping that we may be able to send this as our gift to our unfortunate sisters. My excuse for acting in this matter is that I have several times visited the reformatory with concert parties, and I have increasingly felt the desperate need of a new piano, so that last time I offered to try and collect for one. Any donations sent to me will be gratefully acknowledged.—l am, etc., ANNE PARR. Cathedral Grammar School, Christchurch. The Rev Percy Revell writes“ As honorary secretary of the Prison Gate Mission and Anglican chaplain to Addington Reformatory, may I endorse Mrs Parr’s appeal for funds for a new piano at Addington Reformatory? The old one has done long service, and a new one would be of great help to the ladies who have gone so regularly to give concerts to the inmates.”