DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1245, 26 February 1914, Page 35

DUNEDIN.

(From Our Dunedin Correspondent.) Mr. Harold Ashton advises me from Johannesburg that, despite the strike, business has been good at His Majesty’s, where “The Mikado” has proved an irresistible attaction. The Gilbert and Sullivan Company will visit Australia in June, and will tour New Zealand later in the year, Mr. Johnny Farrell, touring manager for the J. C. Williamson firm at present in Dunedin “advancing” the New Comic Opera Company, i s under orders to sail for Australia .and proceed ahead of the New Comics to Adelaide. Mr. Farrell, together Wxth Mrs. Farrell and family, leaves Dunedin by the Ulimaroa on Sunday. After “doing” Tasmania, they sail for the mainland and go direct to Adelaide. Word has been received that the American musical comedy, “ The Grafters” is the next show of moment to descend upon New Zealand. This is a William Anderson attraction, and may be run in conjunction with J. C. Williamson. The company i s due to open at Invercargill early next month. Nothing definite is known about the subsequent movements. The New Comic Opera Company opens a six-nights’ season at His Majesty’s this (Saturday) evening with “The Count of Luxembourg,” to be followed by “Autumn Manoeuvres,” “The Arcadians” and “The Chocolate Soldier.” Mr. Victor Beck has returned from Invercargill after arranging for a flight in that city of Scotland, the flying man. Mr. Beck has, after some difficulty, secured Tahuna Park for a flight on Saturday next. The Musical Kennedys, a company which has recently been touring Victoria, arrived in Dunedin last week from Australia, having come across from Sydney by the Maunganui on her last voyage. The Kennedys expected to, open in Wellington, but no hall was available. They came on to Dunedin to find that they could not obtain a suitable hall here just when they wanted it. Now they have gone south to tour the Southland district before reaching the centres. I have been advised that Mr. Bert Royle, general representative and attorney for J. C. Williamson, Ltd., has secured a lease of the new theatre in Wellington. The date of opening has not yet b.een. decidedThe experience of the latest continuous picture show—The Plaza—in Dunedin has completely upset the judgment of the exj erts who predicted a short life and not a merry one. The Plaza, however, thanks to good programmes and a comfortable theatre, is more than holding its own with the best of them. Mr. Charles Coombs, a well-known Dunedin identity, passed away on Wednesday at his residence, the Crown Hotel, Temuka. Mr. Coombs was the founder of the Dunedin Orchestral Society,. and was known throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand as one of the finest exponents on the cornet. He arrived in Auckland 59 years ago, and came to Dunedin in the “sixties.”