THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 79, 27 December 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

VERYONE who has read and enjoyed the delightful "Experiences of an Irish R.M." should not miss the series of talks to be given by Miss Diana Craig entitled "On tour in Southern Ireland" because they cover much the same’ ground with just as many amusing experiences. Miss Craig ‘is a young New Zealand university girl who has just returned after two or three years spent in the study of drama in England, in the course of which she made a long tour through Eire playing in a touring company. This company certainly catered for all tastes, as it played Shakespeare, modern comedy and old time melodrama, visiting all sorts of places right off the beaten track in southern and western Ireland. In the series of talks to be given in 2YA’s morning women’s sessions, listeners will see what a wonderful insight this tour gave Miss Craig into the Irish country life, their enthusiasm for the plays, the hospitality the troupers received, the scenery and the ways of the country folk. Before and After This is just an advance notice that people who intend giving New Year’s parties which may possibly extend beyond the hour of midnight, needn’t worry about a supply of music to drown the conversation. The four main ZB stations have decided to stay on the air from midnight until 6a.m. on New Year’s Day morning. And, as_ the ordinary New Year’s Day programmes start at six in the morning, this means that the ZB’s will be on the air for '42 hours continuously. Anyone who has "ever given a party ("thrown" of course,

is the word) will appreciate the value of a good supply of music in the small hours. For the announcers it is a different matter, and our heart-felt sympathy goes out to them. As a tribute

we present one of those "before and after" pictures-a ZB announcer at midnight and the same announcer at 6 a.m. The Old Road Recollections, and more recollections of the Old Coast Road will be broadcast by A. P. Harper from 3YA on Friday of this week, and Friday of next (January 3), at 7.15p.m. Mr. Harper is old enough to remember most intimately the exact quality of the apple pies at Bealey, and the years the Waimakariri flooded bank to bank. He is also young enough to get out into the hills even now and show younger men where to put their feet. Young enough, too, to make his broadcasts interesting as well as dignified, and accurate in their information to the nth degree. For him the Old Coast Road is especially familiar ground. Most of his exploring was done on the West Coast, and Arthur’s Pass was then the link between two worlds even more different in their character than now. Mr. Harper travelled often from one to the other, and listeners will believe that he was equally at home in both. When? Although we cannot tell listeners the actual date of Cara Hall’s birthday, we can report that she was seventeen in October, and is now only three months older. We can also report that she has prospects of a brilliant musical future. In fact, it is more than prospective, as listeners will discover if they care to tune in to 2YA at 8.44 p.m. on Monday, December 30. Her last appearance in the programmes was on September 19, when she played Bach’s "Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor." It was with that piece that she won the Eric Brough Memorial Prize at the London Academy during her two years as a pupil there. Next week’s is a re-appearance in public after a holiday in the quietness of the Mackenzie Country. Her photograph appears on page 25. Bad Manners and Good How often are good manners completely insufferable! What about the man who will not accept a second helping of sweets because he’s been offered the last spoonful in all good faith, and who then spends the evening looking hungry? Or the woman who comes for afternoon tea, stays late, is too polite to overstay her welcome and wait for dinner, but stays so long saying so that dinner

is two hours late? It is all a question of degree. There was that other case of the staunch republican in Victorian days who preferred to throw himself out of sight in the ditch rather than have to raise his hat when the Queen drove by. It all seems to prove that it’s best to be decent and honest, and Mary Scott will probably say just that in her talk from 3YA on Saturday, January 4, at 11 a.m. Last Chance Although the radio item will be 44 hours and one minute late for the purpose, our announcement of the play "Last Call for Husbands,’ which 2YA will broadcast at 8.1 p.m. on Thursday, January 2, may remind lonely maidens in sufficient time that a Leap Year is rapidly getting behind them. Some say that the feminine privilege expires on

February 29, but that is an arbitrary arrangement and we see no reason, especially in these times of so many scarcities, why husbands should not be chased as well as accepted. This NBS production ites the adventures of two old maids who remember that the time has come to make a last call for husbands before three more years of ordinary existence condemn them to the inadequacy of the single state. Centennial in Review Only when the listener hears extracts from all the famous Centennial broadcasts of 1940, to be given from all national stations at 8 p.m. on December 31, will he realise the range of events presented for the Dominion’s first Centennial Celebrations. Spread over several months, and given in a period which was dominated by the war, they may not have seemed numerous at the time, but when included in the NBS feature programme, "Centennial Review," they are shown to have been most impressive. In the space of half an hour or so there will be extracts from the celebrations at Waitangi and Petone beach, speeches at the Exhibition, the greetings from England by Anthony Eden, then Minister for the Dominions, and from W. J. Jordan. The musical events include, of course, extracts from the Centennial Music Week festivals held in the different centres, with the special artists brought out by the NBS, and also | part of "Faust" when presented in Auckland under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham. The programme will be opened by a short recording of the speech given by the late M. J. Savage on " The Spirit of this Centennial Year," on New Year’s Eve, 1939. Plans Mr. Nash may view next week’s A.C.E, talk with some suspicion, after his experience this month. He asked,

one day, that women should buy fewer silk stockings and discovered, the next, that they had immediately set about buying a lot more. "Plans for 1941" evidently include a determination to keep the leg line slim, and the body lissom. However, the A.C.E. does not usually concern itself with such important trivialities. Legs, we imagine, will not be discussed in the talk to be broadcast by 1YA and 3YA on Monday, December 30, at 3.30p.m. and 2.30p.m. respectively. It was unfair of us to raise the subject, although we must argue that it’s more readily raised when it’s clad in silk than when worsted’s all that decorates it. But tut! "Plans for 1941" will be more sensible than this announcement of the talk. LAST Item To say that the last radio items of 1940 in New Zealand will all be called "Close Down" is to ask, with some of our more waggish correspondents, who is that prolific commentator, "Ed." And yet it is that prosaic announcement, and none other, that rounds off this year’s radio programmes from all stations. Two main nationals, 2YA and 3YA, will be covering public celebrations, at Post Office Square in Wellington, and in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square. Auckland’s 1YA will play out the Old Year with " Variety for Hogmanay"; and 4YA somewhat aptly features an old-time dance programme. In Invercargill, 4YZ carries on until midnight and rings in the New Year. Greymouth’s 3ZR is broadcasting for one hour extra, like Napier’s 2YH; but Nelson folk will have to seek other wavelengths after 10 p.m.