A WELL-MERITED COMPLIMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXV, Issue 11785, 23 September 1913, Page 4

A WELL-MERITED COMPLIMENT.

We make no apology for making a further reference to-day to the Masterton Amateur Theatrical Society, and when our readers learn the reason, we are quite sure that they will np.t expect any apology from us. Last night the Society decided to tender a complimentary performance to their popular stage manager, Mr Harry Hall. Tho proposal, which emanated, we understand, from a general desire expressed by the whole company, has been taken up with great enthusiasm, and as will be gathered from an announcement appearing elsewhere in this issue, next Monday night has been selected as the occasion for the performance. The compliment which the Society is paying to Mr Hall is no slight one, but it is thoroughly well-merited. Ever since the inception of the Society more than six years ago, Mr Hall has been its stage manager, and has thrown himself into the discharge of the arduous, and exacting duties which so important a position involves with a self-sacrificing enthusiasm which is truly admirable, and which counts for a good deal in the high standard of excellence ' which the Society has attained in its productions. Moreover, Mr Hall, is an enthusiast of the right sort. His en-

thusiasm is that of the expert, not of the fanatic; it is intelligent enthusiasm disciplined by a mature professional experience; it is not the untutored enthusiasm of the village mountebank whose "trop de zele" is always leading him into inartistic solecism. And, if, for these reasons, Mr Hall deserves well of the Society, equally do the people of Masterton owe him some recognition for tho enjoyment ho has afforded them both in his painstaking work as stage manager of the Society, and in his exceptional gifts as a comedian. We are therefore satisfied " that the Town Hall will be besieged by his admirers next Monday night.