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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Music Dealers, Importers, Etc

Music Dealers, Importers, Etc.

British And Continental Piano Company (Mr. A. Hegman, manager), Piano, Organ, and Music Warehousemen, Strand, Queen Street, Auckland. This enterprising company has a large, lofty and elegantly-appointed warehouse on the Queen Street frontage of the Strand Arcade. It extends for 26 feet along Queen Street, and marches with the corridor of the Arcade for the first 75 feet, and throughout the entire extent of both frontages it is closed in with heavy plate-glass shop-windows. As a consequence the natural lighting is perfect, and the artificial lighting is equally brilliant. The ceilings are lofty, and are enriched with embossed asbestos work, the cornices being executed in green and gold. Calsomined walls, adorned at regular intervals with handsome gift-framed pier-glasses, and set off with a uniform dadoing of embossed asbestos, harmonise with the ceilings, and assist to produce a most striking and elegant general effect. The company's business is under the very capable management of Mr. A. Hegman, who has neglected no opportunity to bring and keep it prominently under the public notice. The business has made very rapid progress since its extension to Auckland, and Mr. Hegman ascribes this result, firstly, to the fact, that only the very best instruments are offered to the public, and, secondly, that the system of sale on deferred payments is based on a scale which offers quite exceptional advantages to the purchaser. The company makes a specialty of four great lines. First of all there is the Haake, the most popular of German pianos in the colonies, of which, on an average, over 400 are imported annually, and which, as sold by the company, range in price from £40 to £100. Next there is the Kaps piano, a high-class instrument; the Bechstein, the very finest piano that is turned out; and, finally, the Strohmenger, an English piano of which the company has lately taken the sole agency for New Zealand. It is also sole agent for the Chicago Organ Company, which claims to be the largest manufacturer in America of this class of goods. The company's Auckland stock comprises only instruments of the most approved quality. At one side of the warehouse stands the office, and at the end furthest from Queen Street there is a suite consisting of two teaching rooms and a repairing room. The teaching rooms have been specially constructed so as to make them sound-proof.

British and Continental Piano Company's Showroom.

British and Continental Piano Company's Showroom.

Mr. George Kemp Webb, Piano Tuner and Repairer for the British and Continental Piano Company, was born in Auckland in 1861, and is a son of the late Mr. Samuel H. Webb. In 1875 he went Home to receive tuition under his brother, the Rev. S. W. P. Webb, who was a clever musician, and when he returned to Auckland in 1879, he entered into business with his father as a piano importer. Intent upon gaining a thoroughly practical knowledge of the trade, Mr. Webb took a trip Home in 1885, and placed himself under an eminent English
Mr. G. K. Webb.

Mr. G. K. Webb.

maker. He returned to Auckland in 1886, and the firm gave up business in 1889. Mr. Webb then joined the British and Continental Piano Company, with which he has had the opportunity of gaining large experience in the tuning of organs and pianos, as well as in the repairing of all kinds of musical instruments. Being a fully qualified tuner, he has a large private connection as well, and his private address is Jervois Road, Ponsonby.

The London And Berlin Piano Company was incorporated in the early part of 1886, when it turned into a company the piano and organ business established some years previously by Mr. W. H. Webbe, who is the acting managing partner in the existing company. The showroom, warehouse, and workshops are situated in Messrs L. D. Nathan and Co.'s block, opposite the Post Office, in Shortland Street. The trade generally done in New Zealand is with German instruments, but a few years ago Mr Webbe went a round of numerous British, Continental, and American piano factories, and determined to push good class English pianos to the front. As a result of his efforts trade in the English instruments has rapidly increased, and the London and Berlin Piano Company now represents such makers as John Broadwood and Sons, W. G. Eavestaff and Sons, Monington and Weston, and John Spencer and Co. Mr. Webbe states that page 266 the Spencer is the most popular piano in the North Island. The company is sole agent for the distinguished German makers, A. H. Francke, Leipzig; Gors and Kallmann, Berlin; and F. Webber, Berlin. It also imports pianos by Rudibach and Sohn, Schwechten, and other high-class German makers. Only two makers of American organs are represented—namely, the old-established firm of Wilcox and White, of Meriden, Connecticut, and the comparatively new house of John Malcolm and Co. Some very fine symphony self-playing organs are on view in the company's showrooms. In addition to his business duties, Mr. Webbe, with the help of an assistant-teacher, conducts a successful music school, which was established in 1883, and is attended, on an average, by about one hundred pupils. Mr. Webbe was amongst the first English music teachers to inaugurate piano quartet classes about a quarter of a century ago, and he has conducted them regularly in Auckland since 1884.

Squire, Byron, And Son, Pianoforte Manufacturers, Stanhope Street, Euston Road, London; 39 Kyber Pass Road, Auckland, New Zealand manager, Mr. Byron Squire. Although the local branch of this English house was established only in October, 1894, its trade has already grown to large proportions. Mr. Byron Squire attends personally to all orders booked in New Zealand, thus ensuring satisfaction to their patrons. Messrs. Darter and Co., their agents at Capetown, one year disposed of nearly 600 of their instruments, whilst Messrs. Patterson, Sons and Co., of Edinburgh and Glasgow, pass a thousand through their
Mr. B. Squire.

Mr. B. Squire.

hands annually. At the London Exhibition of 1862, they carried off all the prizes for which they competed, and they have since well maintained their position. A striking feature of their pianos is the patent perfect check repeater action, which is said to enable a player to execute rapid passages with the greatest facility and promptitude. The improved iron frame and compensating back, together with nine complete bracings are among the firm's latest improvements. They have been introducing, by way of experiment, pianos manufactured from New Zealand woods, which will, no doubt, become popular. Mr. Byron Squire was born in London in 1848, and was educated at the North London college and at Guines, in France. He was for some time in a large London warehouse, and for two years with Berens Blumberg of that city. He then entered the factory in which he eventually became a partner, and passed through all the various stages of piano manufacture, extending over a period of 26 years. In 1881, Mr. Squire came to Australia per ship “Alexandra Duthie,” with a view of extending the business. He travelled all over that country and returned to England, making his second trip some two or three years later when he established branches throughout Australia. It was Mr. Squire who introduced the zither into Australia. He contested the Lower Lachlan seat in the New South Wales Parliament, but was defeated by the narrow majority of forty-two votes.
Hauling Out The Logs in Waitakerei Forest.

Hauling Out The Logs in Waitakerei Forest.