THINGS TO COME A Run Through The Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 43, 19 April 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run

Through The Programmes

It is not only St. George’s Day; but it is England’s Day, Shakespeare’s Day, Zeebrugge Day, Boy Scouts’ Day in England, and the Name Day of the King. Its commemoration in New Zealand, apart from the closing of the banks, is not very general, but since 1936 the various English County Societies in Wellington have united to observe their national Day under the title of the English Folk Association. They assemble annually, and this year are to have a distinguished speaker in the person of the Prime Minister, the Hon. Peter Fraser. Station 2YC will relay part of the celebrations, including Mr. Fraser’s address on England. The relay will begin at 9p.m. on Tuesday April 23. 23 is a day of famous anniversaries, The Shadow Lengthens As this paragraph is being written, the shadow of the swastika is lengthening through Scandinavia. No finer dramatised version of the growth of the Nazi power has been made than "The Shadow of the Swastika," which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23, from 2YA Wellington. Since this play began, NBS officials have had many letters remarking on the extraordinary resemblance between the voice of the actor playing Hitler

and Hitler’s voice itself. When the play was produced, dozens of actor were tried for the ‘role. The likeliest were recorded and their records played over and compared with records of Hitler speaking. The actor who now plays the part is Marius Goring, and he has indeed achieved a remarkable imitation of Der Fuehrer. The episode on Tuesday is "The Reichstag Fire"; and our artist visualises that dramati¢ moment when, as the flames leapt high, the shadow of the swastika fell ever more blackly over Berlin,

Celebrity Concert Heddle Nash (tenor), Isobel Baillie (soprano), Gladys Ripley (contralto), and Oscar Natzke (bass), will make their first public appearance with Andersen Tyrer and* the National Centennial Festival Symphony Orchestra in Wellington Town Hall on Saturday, April 27. The first three artists, as we announced last week, have been brought from England, as the leading concert artists of their time, to reinforce the talent assembled for the Centennial Festival. Oscar Natzke will be making his first public appearance since he returned to New Zealand after outstanding successes overseas. The concert will be relayed by 2YA and 2YC. Proceeds are to go to the National Patriotic Fund Board. Europe Overflows The Winter Course Talks at 3YA are to include a series of 12 talks by local experts on the effects of European emigration to the new lands, especially to New Zealand. The series will be called " Microphone Round the Table: Europe Overfiows," and will include a candid consideration of what has been the effect on this country of such things as the use and abuse of natural resources. At the end, participants will consider what the prospects are for New Zealand in culture and in character. There is a panel of six speakers, all of them teachers in university institutions or secondary schools. They are: Kenneth Cumberland, acting-head of the department of geography at Canterbury College; Professor E. Percival, professor of biology at Canterbury College; L. W. McCaskill, M.Ag, Se., Christchurch Training College; L. Morrison, B.Sc., Lincoln College; Robert G. Bowman, of the U.S.A., visiting lecturer in geography; and G. T. J. Wilson, assistant lecturer in history at Canterbury College. Mr. Cumberland will be chairman f the discussions and the speakers, numbering from two to four, will be drawn from this panel. The first discussion will be broadcast at 7.35 p.m. on April 24. From Over the Sea A view of New Zealand from Australia will be presented in two items broadcast on April 25 and May 2 by 3LO Melbourne. The broadcaster will be H. D. Flannagan, a retired public servant of Victoria. He was recently in New Zealand, partly holidaying, and partly interesting himself in special New Zealand conditions. The organisation of the State Advances Corporation was placed at his disposal while he investigated our work in

housing construction and housing problems generally, so his first talk, at 11.15 p.m. (our summer time) on April 25, will cover " His Home is His Castle-Housing in New Zealand"; while the second, at 10.45p.m. (our standard time) on May 2, will be entitled: "Exalted Valleys and Hills Made Low-The Roads of New Zealand." Handy Andys Any dripping taps to-day, m’am? Any tubs that leak? Do you habitually slip on the third stair past the landing? Does the bedroom door squeak after midnight? Make a box for the milk for you, m’am? Fly trap on the window ledge? What about a non-slip clothes prop? Anything for Handy Andy today? Those are some suggestions. The whole business has been investigated by the A.C.E., which has arranged to give talks next week on "Odd Jobs for Handymen," from 1YA on Monday, April 22, at 3.30 p.m., from 2YA on the same day at 3p.m., and from 3YA at 2.30 p.m. When it is all over listeners, we are sure, will lack nothing but the Handyman himself; and he usually lives next door, or just around the corner. What He Likes With that peculiar perversity that goes for humour in English-speaking countries, that paradoxical sense of opposites, that crankiness, that love of ridicule, or the inane, the mind can think of one thing, and one thing only, when it comes across the announcement, in 4YA’s programmes for next week, that an executive of a cordial factory will tell local listeners what he likes at 9.25 p.m. on Monday, April 22. It is extremely likely that he will ask for anything reasonable and ordinary from Brahms and Boyer to that Gracie Fields who headed a recent popularity poll in Dunedin. It is possible even that he will like some higher flight of classics, or some lower exhibition of what these days is called music only for the lack of a more suitable name. But as an executive of a cordial factory there is only one thing he ought to like, and that is "The Beer Barrel Polka," diluted, perhaps, for the occasion. Akaroa Again F The postponed Centennial celebrations at Akaroa are now to be held on Sunday next, and 3YA will relay from the scene at 3 p.m. Features of the programme will be a re-enact-ment of the proclamation of British Sovereignty, a re-enactment of the actual landing, the receiving of a gift from the President of France to the municipality, and

Maori items. Present by invitation from the Minister of Internal Affairs will be eight direct descendants of the first French settlers. The gift from the President of France (M. Lebrun), is to be handed over by the French Consul for New Zealand (M. Pouquet). A brief history of the Akaroa "affair" was given in The Listener for March 21. Vindication Ralph Hogg’s "The Trampled Herbage Springs," is a triangle play with a differencethe theme is the vindication of one man’s honour; the sins of the other man find him out.

Vindication takes place high up among New Zealand mountains. Amid the snowy peaks three climbers come together, and a wrong done in the Great War is repaired. This play, which won a prize in the 1937-38 radio play competition conducted by the NBS, is by an author who knows how to handle characters and situations with adroitness. Time: 9.25 p.m. on Sunday, April 21. Place: Station 3YA Christchurch. Great Music on Celluloid A good seat at the opera rarely costs under half a guinea, but you can go to the cinema for a shilling or two. That is why the films have been such a boon in bringing great artists to people who would otherwise have little chance of hearing them. The programme organisers of 2YC Wellington, who can generally be relied on to produce bright shows, have just thought up a new one — a session of the opera arias and excerpts you have heard at the pictures. You will hear such people as Lawrence Tibbett, Deanna Durbin singing "Lib Iamo," Grace Moore singing "One Fine Day," and Stokowski conducting "Lohengrin" Prelude. Listen in at 8 p.m, on Friday, April 26, to 2YC Wellington,