THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 112, 15 August 1941, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Kun Through The Programmes

ANY of the talks broadcast this winter, especially in the Winter Course series, have been closely connected with things as they are and things as:they will be. However, the Centennial habit has left us still with some-.urge to look backward, and "Reva Glenn’s" series from 2YA is typical. The second of her talks will be heard from 2YA at 11 a.m. on Monday, August 18. "Reva Glenn" is the broadcasting name for a schoolteacher who was born in the Marlborough Sounds district. She describes, first, her early life there, where communications were almost nil, and settlers in most cases shut off from outside contacts for months at a time. From there she progressed by stages to Wellington, and the Teachers’ Training College. Now she has arrived after so many years of so many contrasts in front of the modern microphone, and 2YA’s morning session listeners are hearing the result. Statement A simple statement of’ the items in 2YA’s programme for the evening of Tuesday, August 19, should create sufficient interest for it. However, listeners who might otherwise miss this concert are herewith advised to check up on the details printed in our programme pages. There will be the NBS String Orchestra, Lawrence North singing Schubert songs, and the combined choirs of the Harmonic Society and the Apollo Singers, con-

ducted by H.-.Temple White. This last will be relayed from the Town Hall’s Concert Chamber after 9.25 p.m. Old and New Here we present a very ancient joke -the joke about the amateur paperhanger. He steps in the paste. He tangles in the paper. He falls off the ladder. He sticks to the ceiling. He is a@ permanent character in slapstick humour, and one of Mr. Punch’s best stand-bys until Hitler, and even Hitler

was once a paper-hanger. However, there seems to be no reason why an amateur should make a mess of hanging paper. At least, the A.C.E. think not. In fact, they are going to tell us exactly how it should be done. Wives will hear the talk at 3.15 o’clock on the afternoon of Friday, August 22, from 4YA. If they relay the information to their husbands, and hurry to get paper before the last of it is sunk at sea, the seasonal springtime might well be welcomed with a touch of brightness in the home. Local Talent Where does new musical talent come from? How do station directors find new local talent for the programmes? Listeners will be able to answer these questions in part for themselves when 2YA begins broadcasting selected sections of the Wellington Competitions Society’s annual festival: The opening programme of the competitions will be relayed from the Wellington Town Hall at 8.18 p.m. on Saturday, August 23. In each of the musical centres of New Zealand the local competitions are the big chance for up-and-coming musicians. They are also a splendid opportunity for the general public to judge for themselves how our talent is developing.. Listeners will have a special interest in these programmes. Masters in Lighter Mood An attempt to meet the wishes of the many listeners who have complained about a dearth of good music after 10 p.m. is to be made by the YA stations, beginning next week. A sequence of programmes has been arranged so that on each night of the week (except Tuesday), between 10 p.m..and 11 p.m., one YA station will be broadcasting a feature session to be called The Masters in Lighter Mood. Station 1YA will hroadcast'this on each Wednesday and every

fourth Saturday. Station 2YA will have it on Thursdays and every third Saturday; Station 3YA on Fridays and every second Saturday; and Station 4YA on Mondays and every first Saturday of thé month. Next week 1YA has the Saturday programme on August 23, which is the fourth Saturday. The fifth Saturday, August 30, will be missed out. Where repetitions of the excerpts from Sundays With the Boys Overseas session are scheduled, the duration of the new programme will be reduced as required, and on Saturdays sports results will probably cut into it by about 10 minutes. Popular classics will be the mainstay of the session, Earls, Aunts, and Uncles A comedy of situation will interest serial fans when 2YA begins next week to broadcast a new serial called Team Work (Wednesday, August 20, at 7.53 p.m.). The hero comes into an earldom. En route to sit in the country seat he argues with a policeman and is arrested. To help him,out a friend, of American origin, and fortunately very like. the new earl, agrees to deputise. At the country seat he finds that two unpleasant uncles and two unpleasant aunts are already sitting, and determined to re- main so. He gives as good as he receive, and does his best to encourage them to leave. Released from prison, the earl himself arrives, and the two of them set

to work on the relatives in earnest. The yncles and aunts are properly confused by the presence of two earls who are never seen together and who pretend there is only one. Undercurrent of History " Now, if ever, we ought to be able to appreciate the whole importance of the stand which was made by our forefathers against the House of Stuart. All around us the world is convulsed by the agonies of great nations, Governments which lately seemed likely to stand during ages have been on a sudden shaken and overthrown. . . . Europe has been threatened with by barbarians. Meanwhile in our island the regular course of Government has never been for a day interrupted.... And... it is because we had freedom in the midst of servitude that we have order in the midst of anarchy." These were the words of Thomas Babington Macaulay as set down ‘in’ his

History of England about halfway through the nineteenth century. We feel that the listener can be offered no more eloquent introduction to Professor F. L. W. Wood’s talk on " Parliament’s Fight Against the Stuarts" to be delivered from 2YA -next Monday. ,The same theme, democracy versus tyranny, progress versus conservatism, seems_ to dominate English history. Homage to U.S.A... Nothing could be more topical and proper at this stage of the war than the Homage to U.S.A. programme which is scheduled for broadcast by Station 4ZB, Dunedin, next Sunday, August 17. The programme, Which is dedicated to the New Zealand se¢tion of the BritishAmerican Co-operation Movement, has been devised by L. E. Strachan of the CBS head office programme department,’ who will be one of the compéres. Quotations are included from speeche§ by Mr. Churchill, President Roosevelt, the Right Hon. R. G. Menzies (Prime Minister of Australia), the Right Hon. Peter Fraser (Prime Minister of New. Zealand), Sir Harry Batterbee (High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand), Sir Philip Gibbs (author and war correspondent), and H. F. von Haast (well known New Zealand solicitor). The ‘other ZB stations will broadcast the programme on subsequent Sundays, 3ZB on August 24, 2ZB on August 31, and 1ZB on September 7.