NELSON BAND CONTEST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7961, 12 February 1906, Page 5

NELSON BAND CONTEST.

AN EXPLANATORY LETTER. A member of the Masterton Band writes aa follows: In connection with the alleged "ringing in" of professional players by several of the bands competing at the recent Nelson Contest, I should like to state that in the early stages of the Contest there were all kinds of rumours about the bands evading the rules, and utimately a meeting of delegates from the bands and representatives of the Contest Committee was held. The matter was fully discussed, and the decision was that the bands complained of were quite within their rights, and apparently abiding by the rules. A rather amusing fact was that one of the bands whiob \vas making all the complaints, immediately on learning the decision of the meeting, came to the Mas-ter-ton Band, ind wanted to engage one of their cornet players. t This suggestion, however, did not meet with the approval of the player indicated. Another incident is, also, worthy of note. When the Judge's decision in the test piece was announced, several malcontents came to the Masterton Band officials and said: "You've got it all your own way; they must 'go up,' if you protest." But we declined to take action, considering that we had undertaken the trip with the idea of "playing" for the first prize, and not "wrangling" for it, and no amount of protesting would cause the three-fourths of a point, which we were to the bad, to disappear. The main cause of the trouble was the misinterpretation of the rules referring to "professional conductor and professional player," by so*ne of the bands, ana when this was cleared up every one evidently did their utmost to win., As an indication of the absurdity of some of the rumours, it was said that Mr Simpson, of Carterton, was not a bona fide member of the Masterton Band. This, of course, was completely exploded when it was intimated thaf- the player had been playing with the Maßterton Band for abouj; two years, and as a member of the Band, bad competed at Auokland in 1905.

CABLE NEWS.

By Telegraph—Pressl Association —Copyright.