Satisfactory Start

"The fact that this meeting is only just able to reach a quorum is no indication of the actual support the contemporary arts can command."

Nelson Wattie, retiring president of the society, made this comment at the start of the Contemporary Arts Agm held recently.

"The society has some cause to be satisfied with its first few months in existence." Wattie said. 'Two concerts have been given covering all the arts as the club's aim committed it to do. The first concert was a conspicuous success including jazz, poetry, modern music and dance and the second concert if it did not have the support of the first, provided excellent entertainment," Wattie went on to say.

"The reading of humorous verse by Anton Vogt, Dennis Glover and Peter Bland was so successful the New Zealand Broadcasting Service had rebroadcast selections from the evening omitting the more ribald bits of course," Wattie said. "Zoo Story," repeated after its first performance last year with Peter Bland and Martyn Sanderson taking the two parts netted a profit of £23 which is encouraging for any schemes to produce activities during the lunch hour, the club treasurer, Frater stated.

"Argot" had been produced by a few interested members the president's report revealed, and Frater commented that it would soon be produced with a different format and better quality paper. "If the programme for the forthcoming year continued to improve on this standard, and the production of J. K. Baxter's 'The Spots Of The Leopard' the forthcoming year could be quite notable." Wattie concluded.