THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 99, 16 May 1941, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

RE there more women novelists than men novelists, or is it just that Margaret Johnston makes them seem more? She has certainly revealed an impressive list of outstanding novels written by women in her series of talks on Saturday mornings, without exhausting the field, and now she is turning to Australian women novelists. From 2YA on May 24 she will speak about Ethel Turner, perhaps the best known Australian woman writer. On succeeding Saturdays she will discuss Mrs. Aeneas Gunn (We of the Never Never), the writer known as " Henry Handel Richardson," and then Helen Simpson (not the Dr. Helen Simpson of Christchurch who wrote the survey on New Women in the Centennial Surveys). Miss Johnston’s talks are heard first from 2YA and then from other national Stations a week or so later, A Wealthy Old Lady’ We should have thought the Bank of England the most unromantic subject one could find for a radio serial. (No, we're not being in the least political.) But apparently we were mistaken. The Bank of England has indeed been dramatised as a kindly old perBonage in The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street which runs to 52 quarter-hour episodes and which will be heard over the ZB stations in the near future. As We go to press we know very little about the. feature, beyond the fact that it is "a series of tales dealing with that symbol of the Empire’s wealth

The Bank of England . . . stories with a background of tradition, dating from Roman times." (We are quoting the makers of the feature.) What interests us most at the moment is the habit of personifying financial institutions. Why should a bank be called an Old Lady? And why should the gentleman to whom we lent our watch last week be referred to as Uncle? (The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, before we forget, will start from 1ZB on May 22, and from the other ZB stations on succeeding Thursdays.) Unusual Angles It seems probable that some of the fatal fascination which the obvious and the commonplace exercise on the average amateur photographer will be dispelled by a talk to be given by Thelma

R. Kent, the well-known Christchurch photographer, hiker, and speaker on photographic subjects. She is scheduled to speak from 3YA again next Friday evening, May 23, on "Photographing the Unusual," and if the Developing and Printing people complain of headaches! among their staffs caused by deciphering prints received from amateurs who have heard this talk, they will know who to blame. We are anxious to let ourselves out of any trouble in advance by -explaining that Miss Kent wants amateurs to use their heads, not lose their heads, as our artist seems to think, and if her talks result in only one boxcamera taking a family group that is (a) complete with legs in focus (b) the tops of the heads not cut off (c) nobody left out and (d) everyone recognisable, then they will have been worthwhile. A Mozart Week The popularity of the music of Mozart is well exemplified by a quick run through the programmes for the coming week. Station 2YA appears almost to be making it a Mozart Week because three of his major works are to be presented. His Sonata in C Major, a gracious sprightly composition written when Mozart was 23 will be heard on Monday night, also two of his songs presented by Elizabeth Schumann. On Tuesday night there will be.heard his Mass in F Major, which recalls the finest models of the old Neapolitan School although it was written when he was a youth of 18, and on Thursday night the London Philharmonic Orchestra will be heard in his Paris Symphony, an important work for a large orchestra. Auckland listeners will not

be left out: 1YA is presenting Mozart’s Quartet in E Flat on Wednesday, May 21, and Oscar Natzke will be heard in two Mozart songs on Sunday, May 18, from 1YX. For Record Fans "We look before and after, and pine for what is not." There was some excuse for Whoever-it-was-wrote-that pining away because he didn’t have the cheery programmes from 2YD to fall back on, but there is less excuse to-day for anyone within range of that station. For just to prevent people pining from either of these reasons, 2YD presents two sessions, one on Sundays at 7.0 p.m., the other on Wednesdays at 7.45 p.m. If you tend to look before and pine away, we prescribe the former, "Recalls: The Pick of the Week’s Recordings "; if you are one of those who look after and then pine away, listen to the Wednesday session, " Premiére: The Week’s New Releases." Then you will not merely enjoy the unexampled luxury of crying over spilt milk and crossing your bridges before you come to them, but you'll be able to eat your cake and have it, if we may coin a phrase. :

By Corry! Why is it that, although’ there are plenty of. jokes about the Maori’ who has an inadequate command of the English language, there appear to be no stories in circulation about what the Maori thinks of the pakeha who puzzles the poor native with his ultra-correct pronunciation of Maori? Is it that it is impossible to be too correct? Or is it

merely that the Maori keeps those little jokes to himself? Professor Arnold Wall, who is well known for his talks and articles on the correct pronunciation of English, has an interesting discussion with W. W. Bird, formerly an inspector of Native Schools, on the subject of "When the European speaks Maori" from 4YA on -Friday, May 23, which may enlighten us a little on this question. They will probably eschew those jokes about Hori, but what they will give us in their place remains to be seen (or listened to).

Folk-Lore of Skye Though it is classed merely as an auxiliary station, 1ZM has in the talks periodically broadcast by A. J. Sinclair a feature which draws fan-mail from every corner of the Dominion. For Mr. Sinclair is a Scot who talks about Scotland, and the Scots are a clannish lot who will strain their ears and their

radios to hear the familiar accents of the Homeland. And A. J. Sinclair is worth listening to. His is no session of "Scotch" ‘songs and "Scotch" humour; it is the real Mackay, and it Tanges over all the wild expanse of Scottish history and story. Among his recent talks he has told of the Darien Scheme, for example, and of the ancient scholar Duns Scotus. Next Sunday (May 18) his subject is to be " Folk Lore of the Isle of Skye," and even if you had the misfortune to be born on the wrong side of the border, we suggest that you should not miss it. Conventionally Speaking Conventionality is a difficult subject to make up one’s mind about. It raises a heap of problems, on the one hand about the "individualist spirit" and the average person’s dislike of "standardising humanity," on the other, the attractiveness of tradition and the cosiness of feeling that we know just what to do at any given moment. It seems, in fact, that Necessity is to some extent the Mother of Convention. But should we, in our effort to reconcile the different elements aforementioned, be unconventionally conventional and do the "right" things in a different kind of way, or should we be conventionally unconventional and do different things in a "nice" kind of way? But if we go on much longer in this strain we'll get lockjaw. Far better to tune in to Josephine Clare who is booked to speak from 3ZR on May 19 at 3.30 p.m. "Conventionality" is her subject. Perhaps she may clear matters up a little.