SANDY’S CORNER

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 February 1947, Page 4

SANDY’S CORNER

THE "ASIA JOINS THE UNION!” We were not in the least surprised when it was announced yesterday, under fairly big headings, as becomes institutions that can make or mar a man. that the Bank of Australasia is to join the Union Bank ot Australia. We didn’t start looking up reserves of capital, price of shares, colours of buildings, delving into hidden reser. ves, looking wise, shrewd, with a Wall Street glamour in our eyes. Not us! It is the fashion to join the ’Union to.day; everybody’s doing it, even banks! It's a case of have to! , "It goes to show how fickle are the social scales, "How levelling,” said the little I brunette from the Wales. "That piece in the Asia, she ; actually smil’d "This morning, all condescending- • ly and reconciled. "She’s no longer a lady of high , society , ‘‘She’s joining the Union out of I propriety.” 1 "Wedding of convenience,” said | the girl from the “Zed!” "That’s what the heads call it,” and she toss'd her pretty head , “Never mind,” said the girl from i the Wales, "it may be fale. : "But don’t you start getting airs; ! you’re married to the State!” : —"Sandy” Wanganui, February 21, 1947. 1 BANDS TAKE POSSESSION. There are bands to the east of us, bands to the west of us, bands to the south of us, and bands to the north. As a matter of fact the bands have taken possession of Wanganui. We like bands, we always have, but there are bands and bands, must? and music. There is something refreshingly human in the cornet player greeting the dawn with "Will Ye No Come Back Again," but if one cornet player, trombone player, flugel horn or euphonium player wakes us with "I'll Walk Alone." or "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night. In the Week," one New Zealand band, at least, will be minus a player when it returns to wherever it. came from. We’ve always had a liking for bands, and our liking ranges from the days when we were being taught that two and two make four, not some times, but all the time. At that stage our ambition was to be a drummer. When we got up a bit, we took an interest in the big bass instrument; it looked important. Then we had a hankering to play that sliding thing at the side, the trombone. When we were at the courting stage a euphonium played played “End of a Perfect Day" and euphoniums were the world’s best Instruments. George Buckley then told Us that a tenor horn had much to commend it. but we remember a player in George's band with a so. prona cornet and the cornet took possession of our soul. At one time we had a feeling that we ought to he holding the baton. But all that is gone now—we procrastinated, and neither drum nor bass, euphonium nor trombone, tenor horn nor cornet, was mastered by us. Now. we turn a knob and the music we want seems to come to us without much effort. Thank God everybody wasn’t like us, and that at least a thousand players will be in Wanganui to-day who can play without having to turn knobs play in their own right. We salute those thousand chaps, and we bow In homage to the bttntL who gave them scope. Knobs are all right in their place, but give us the bandsman, or the players of any instrument you like to name, (Vlio can be players at the mere asking. Wo remember the bands of last war, away ont near Colini Camps and Hebuterne; we remember them along the poplar roads 'of France, we remember them over the Rhine: And of all tunes we remember best is “Colonel Bogey!" He wa» no knob-twister!