THINGS TO COME A Run Through The Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run

Through The Programmes

HE main thing with a crime play or Z% novel is to have a good criminal. Murderers with repressed psyches or Oedipus complexes are not half as popular as really low types, like sinister Orientals or dope fiends, or white slave runners. You couldn’t ask for a more adequate criminal than the villain in Max Afford’s radio serial, "The Mysterious Mr. Lynch." "Mr. Lynch" proves partial to murder in the costume of a medieval executioner, complete with running noose of hemp. He terrorises London, is behind the strange whistling of "Danse Macabre"- in fact, he should give you many delicious shudders of horror. Complete with haunted Abbeys, brilliant criminologists, baffling enigmas and charming women, "The Mysterious Mr. Lynch" will begin from the Exhibition studio of 2YA early in February; and we'll give you more blood-curdling details later. At Five He Began At the golden age of five most children are going through a transition stage-begin-ning to forget about toy blocks, beginning to read and scrawl a little. and play soldiers. With the Czech composer, Frederick Smetana, fate ordained differently. He did not have to walk before he could run; from infancy he made a flying start to brilliance. Thus the illustration: it is said that he played

in a Haydn String Quartet at the age of five, His father, manager of a Southern Bohemian brewery, was a keen musician and gave the youngster his chance. The boy was to become a champion of the music of his native land, putting the spirit of Bohemia’s people, scenery, and legend into his works. His most famous opera is his humorous The Bartered Bride, which was written in 1866; the opera will be heard from 4YA Dunedin, on Sunday, January 21, at 9.25 p.m.

Singer of the South The keen nip of Otago and Southland air is a stimulant for singing. There’s nothing better than a bust of song in the chill of the early morning, or on cold winter nights. Jean McLay, Dunedin mezzo-contralto would be the first to tell you so. She, herself, began singing at the age of eight, and before she was sixteen was never beaten in competitions. She rounded off her early days of singing by winning a scholarship at eighteen. You don’t have to be born under the shadow of the Metropolitan Opera, or in Covent Garden Market, to be a fine singer. Miss McLay started life in Pukerau, later went to Gore High School, and aside from schooling, had great success in Dunedin competitions. She has appeared also as soloist with the Inver. cargill Orchestral Society and the Dunedin Junior Orchestral Society; and of course, she is well-known over the air. Jean McLay will be heard at 8.10 p.m. and 8.47 p.m. on Sat. urday. January 27, from 4YA Dunedin. Missionary Giants Missionary effort is an integral part of New Zealand’s story. It was the missionaries who brought civilisation to New Zealand and prepared the way for British government and organised British colonisation. There were giants in those day-Samuel Marsden, Bishop Pompallier, Henry Williams, Octavius Hadfield, Samuel Ironside, and others. It is fitting, therefore, that the centennial talks arranged by the NBS should include a number of these early figures in missionary history. There will be a series of talks from 2YA on Sunday afternoons, beginning on January 21, when the Ven. Archdeacon Bullock of Wellington will speak about Samuel Marsden. On the following Sunday afternoon, the 28th, the Rev. Dr. F. H. Walsh will talk about Bishop Pompallier, the pioneer Roman Catholic missionary in New Zealand. This will have a connection with contemporary events, because in the ensuing week the Catholic Church will hold its National Eucharistic Congress in Wellington. On Monday evening. January 29, the Rev. Dr. Noel Gascoigne will broadcast from 2YA a char. acter sketch of the present Pope. On the following Sunday, February 4, the Rev. J. H. Haslam will talk about leading figures in the Wesleyan missionary field in the early days, It is intended to give about ten talks alto.

gether, covering the principal personalities in pre-Colony times and the early years of government. Understanding Europe The roots of European civilisation go back a very long way. Europe is what it is because the Greeks defeated the Persians, because the Romans defeated the Carthaginians. because Christianity spread westward, and because hoards of invaders came out of Asia, It is quite impossible to understand the rivalries and conflicts of to-day without some knowledge of the trend of this history. The NBS is planning a series of talks to make it easier for listeners to understand what has led up to the present situation in Europe, and it is intended to take Europe in sections such as, for example, the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Iberian Peninsula, France, Central Europe, and so on, and sketch in the main facts that make up the life of these regions. What the NBS has in mind was indicated in the talks on Poland which were given shortly after the outbreak of the present war at 2YA and 3YA. The first region to be dealt with in the present series will be the Baltic, which George Bagley will talk about in a number of broadcasts from 3YA, beginning on January 24. The title of the whole series, which will be broadcast from the various stations. will be " Understanding Europe." Romany "Gipsy" is a word which, for many people, conjures up a picture of a nut-brown, ancient hag asking to have her palm crossed with silver. Yet, if you read Borrow on the Spanish gipsies, or Starkie, or any of the numerous books which have appeared in recent years, you will see that the inheritance of the Romany road may be a fine one. Gipsies have wandered in most of the continents of the earth. In Russia you will find their bands, playing the balalaika; through central Europe they have for centuries pursued their carefree, precarious existence; they roam in France and Spain, and their music is made in Italian fields and groves. None more international than the true gipsy-for the whole world is his country, and he desires no more than food and his camp-fire. Dvorak, great Czech composer, probably envied them their joyous freedom when he wrote his gipsy songs. A group of gipsy songs by Dvorak is to be presented from 2YA Wellington. at 8.20 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23.

Food for Families However practically-minded Dr. Elizabeth Bryson may be about food, we expect she will have some difficulty steering the safe middle course when she comes to talk from 1YA on Thursday, January 25, at 7.40 p.m, on Food and the Family. For the practical dietitian must not only reconcile her rules

for diet with the refusal of the human being to take any notice of them: she must also, in this case, reconcile her principles with the impossibility of ever persuading any family to agree on anything. Mother, wise in her way, will probably agree with all that’s said, but daughter has not yet heard the latest opinion of the Hay system and will want carbohydrates when the others are having protein. Father of course can only say "Tut, tut." while the rest fight for anything that’s going. But Dr. Bryson has a way with her and Auckland, as we’ve mentioned before, is becoming food-minded. National Birthdays There used to be heated arguments between Auckland and Wellington about the date of the foundation of New Zealand. Wellington claimed that January 22, the date of the arrival of the Aurora, the first of the New Zealand Company’s ships, was New Zealand’s birthday, as well as Wellington’s. Auckland contended that New Zealand wasn’t a British colony, and that the real birthday was at the end of the month, when Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands: Happily these differences have been smoothed over. In the centennial celebrations, the keeping of January 22 is treated as a national affair, and the same status is given to the gathering at Waitangi in February to mark the anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi. Dr. G. H. Scholefield is to speak at 2YA on January 22 about the significance of the Aurora’s arrival.