THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

ACK again at the 3YA microphone on May 29 will be Mrs. A. M. Spence Clark who is going to speak about dogs again, this time "Sheep Dogs of Other Lands." It is a subject which opens up vistas. We know what our own sheep dogs are like and we know what the English tailless sheep dog looks like (though we are never quite sure which end is looking at us), and we also have the impression that the Alsatian was the German sheep dog before it was superseded by Herr Himmler and the Gestapo. But is there an American sheep dog, or have they, too, been mechanised and do the "Kalmucks and the unkempt Kuzacs of the Tartar wastes," as Matthew Arnold called them, still use sheep dogs, or have they come so far under the influence of Sovietism that they can collectivise their flocks without canine assistance? We pause, Mrs. Clark, for @ reply. By Day and By Night As we all know by now, the blackout has made us revise some of our simplest habits pretty drastically. Recently we noted on this page that the A.C.E. had prepared a talk on "Food and Night Sight," and we suggested that diet deficiency might cause night blindness. No doubt the latest talk prepared by the A.C.E. on "Walking by Day and by Night" will follow up this interesting subject. For those living on an unbalanced diet will find themselves at a disadvantage as their eyes are strained when car and street lights are extinguished in the total blackout. Whether

or not the A.C.E. speaker will touch on this particular aspect, to be up-to-date in your walking habits nowadays requires not a little thought, and the latest A.C.E. hints should have much practical value. "Walking by Day and by Night" will next be heard from 1YA at 3.30 on Monday, May 26. Pressing Problems Why is it that pawnbrokers appear to be dying out as an institution in New Zealand? Judging by what we have read they were once flourishing centres of trade, but the average fellow we know touches us for ten bob as though "Uncle"

never existed. We suspect however, that even to-day they take care of more of "Man’s Economic and Social Problems" than the speakers from 3YA on Wednesday, May 28, will refer to when they speak on that subject. Professor Tocker and Dr. George Jobberns will discuss the complexity of living in the present economic world and the ways in which scientific discoveries have contributed to this. But there are moments when scientific discoveries mean nothing to the man who has mislaid his pawn ticket. In White Samite Another chapter in the old story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table will be told from 4YA next Sunday afternoon. This time it will tell of the sword Excalibur and of the prowess of Balin and Balan. We remember more about the sword than about Balin and Balan, possibly because Tennyson’s lines about the sword are better known-how it was brandished by that mysterious arm which rose from the lake "clad in white samite, mystic, wonderful." Still, they are all fine old legends, though for ourselves we think the Round Table itself should get the most limelight. There is something fundamentally democratic about that piece of furniture. Not Explicit We like Mrs. Mary Scott. We liked the articles she wrote for The Listener and we like the talks which she is giving at present for the NBS. But we do wish sometimes that she would be a bit more explicit in her titles. For example, she is going to be speaking from 3YA on May 28 at 11 am. on "Choosing Partners." Now we’d like to know, before we get leave to attend our grandmother’s

funeral that morning, whether she is going to give a talk to young businessmen like ourselves, or give us the lowdown on successful marriage, or simply a few tips on bridge. Mind you, we could do with some advice on all of these topics, particularly the latter. We are still at the stage where the best we can do is to thump ourselves vigorously over the fountain-pen pocket and stare fixedly at our partners, and we have noticed that such conventions do harass our opponents so. Still, we. would like to be sure we knew what Mrs. Scott was going to talk about. It’s bad enough wondering what the politicians will say next. Just Major Lampen Just Between Ourselves, Major Lampen, we have just thought up rather an intriguing comparison-between you and no less a person than Lord Frederick Hamilton: Lord Frederick Hamilton, you know, wrote chatty and extremely interesting reminiscences about many of those little humorous events that do their best to make life one long quiet chuckle. Your talks are just like that, Major Lampen, and they provide a little bit of homely variety in a usually dull day. It may be of interest to some of those who are listening in to our private conversation if they listen instead to just Major Lampen talking on "Just Awkward Moments," from 4YA at 10.40 a.m. on Thursday, May 29. Drink and be Merry It seems a quaint old tradition that when good fellows, of any degree whatsoever, gather in the hospitable atmosphere of a tavern, inn, public-house, or, indeed, in licensed premises of any sort,

an urge comes over them to raise their voices in song. This is partly due, of course, to the exhilarating effects of the commodities they are wont to consume in such places, partly to the general camaraderie which prevails when men forgather for a joint and unanimous purpose. Unfortunately the habit of singing in taverns seems on the decline. All

this is by way of bringing to your notice a session of Tavern Tunes which Station 3ZB presents every Thursday at 7.45 p.m. We haven’t heard the session ourselves, but we’ll lay a hogshead of ale to a firkin of spiced Burgundy that the signature tune is " There is a Tavern in the Town." Churchill in 1913 The life story of Winston Churchill, which has been dramatised in the ZB feature Imperial Leader, moves on at 1ZB to a critical period in English history. It is 1913, and Churchill, who is First Lord of the Admiralty — key position in the British Cabinet at that timehas travelled to Scotland to make an important speech on the British and German naval programmes. When he arrives in Glasgow he reads a speech in which the Kaiser has sounded a note of undisguised belligerency, and immediately Churchill knows in what tone he must now speak, and how he must answer the threat. Anxious days follow in the British Admiralty, with Churchill over-riding all opposition in his determination to see that the British Fleet is brought up to the highest point of efficiency and placed, in effect, on a war footing. It was in 1913, readers of Great War history will remember, that Churchill and Admiral Lord Fisher made the decision to step up from 13.5in. to 15in. guns. Episodes of Imperial Leader dealing with these eventful times will be heard from 1ZB at 7.15 p.m. on Friday, May 30, and 8.15 p.m. on Saturday, May 31. —