THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

OR next week’s talk, in their Changing Bases of Society series, 3YA could have chosen mo more suitable speaker than Sydney L. Thompson, the New Zealand artist, who is to discuss, in two talks, "People, Pictures, and Painting." His first will be heard at 7.38 p.m. on Wednesday, September 3, and the second on September 10. Mr. Thompson is one of New Zealand’s most notable artists. "So far as I have gone with the writing of the script," he tells us, "stories of painters and their pictures will form the greater part of the two talks. I shall deal with New Zealand artists and some from overseas. In the second talk I am going to speak of modern artists and perhaps the reaction of the public to their pictures. As regards the public-I shall have to deal with that subject very carefully, because they will be my listeners and they should receive my special care and attention." Mr. Thompson can rest assured that many listeners will be tuned in to receive his special care and attention. Autocrat at the Microphone That heading, of course, refers not to Professor T. D. Adams, but to Oliver Wendell Holmes, from whose works Professor Adams will read extracts in his weekly broadcast from 4YA on September 5. We do not know at the moment from which of the works of the great American humorist extracts will be taken. The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table is hardly likely to be

passed over, but on the other hand, readings from The Professor at the Breakfast Table would be particularly apropos. Those Who Write Some artists insist on being awkward. Here we had everything ready to make the good old joke about literature as compared with journalism being a gamble rather than a profession, when along comes Russell Clark with a drawing obviously intended to reduce the status of journalists in the eyes of all

those budding Ernest Hemingways who will be looking forward to R. H. Melville’s talk from 1YA next week. Mr. Melville, who is lecturer in journalism at Auckland University College, will talk about "Literature and Journalism" in the series discussing the choice of careers, at 7.35 p.m. on Thursday, September 4. We are not sure whether he is going to talk about the two subjects as one, or separate them, but if he separates them we still think, in spite of Russell Clark’s prosperous author and shabby reporter, that a pen in the hand is worth two in the book. "B.P." And Others The NBS last week received recorded historical dramas of exceptional interest from London; The first is "BadenPowell: a programme in memory of the Chief Scout," which tells the story of "B.P.’s" career, how he planned his old age when he was a boy, and passed from soldier to founder of the most successful boy’s movement the world has seen, This feature is to be broadcast from 2YA on September 5. It will be followed on subsequent Fridays by two of a series, "Great Parliamentarians," in which the careers of Chatham and Disraeli will be presented in dramatised form. Chatham was one of the greatest War Ministers Britain has ever had, and we see him here forcing his way into the Ministry, organising victory where defeat’ had been, and leaving Canada to the Empire as his most splendid monument. Rights: of Man The sweep.of the French Revolution was suddenly’ stopped by the reaction brought "in the baggage train of the: Allies," to use the well-worn phrase. Yet it has left much of worth to posterity. In the early days the States-General, like some other similar bodies, sat round in a circle and talked and talked about Man’s Place in Society. As the revolution progressed towards action and re-

action, knowing foreigners took sides, just as people take sides to-day about the Soviet. Burke’s Reflections were answered by Paine’s book defending the Rights of Man, which he had helped the Revolutionary Assembly to formulate. Although the then reigning government declared the work subversive, and its writer had to leave England, the ideas inspired byy the book and by other incidents in the Revolution returned again and again to the minds of men during later decades. Professor F. L. W. Wood will tell us something more about them when he speaks from 2YA on Monday next on "The French Revolution and the Rights of Man." Drang Nach Osten Followers of the entertaining and indefatigable Major Lampen will find him next week (as far as 2YA is concerned) "Just East of Suez," at 11 am. on Thursday. We are not exactly certain of his longitude-it may be only just East of Suez, or he may be well on the road to Mandalay-but whether his talk is of temple bells or thirst, or the Commandments, which. are notoriously disregarded in these parts, or dawns which come up like thunder, and certainly if it is about Burma girls, then it should be well worth taking 15 minutes off from housework to listen to it. Stag Party "There are occasions,’ wrote Stanelli, "when men want to be on their own, when they want to. take off that jacket, smoke their foul pipes, throw their ash about, and put their feet on the mantel. So whenever my good ball and chain goes out visiting, then you can be sure

there will be a very jolly little stag party at 97 Devonshire Mews, South, W.1." A sample of one of these parties will be broadcast from 1YA at 7.52 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2. Meanwhile, our artist illustrates its possible aftermath. First Shots Britain went into this war on September. 3,'1939, but the first, shots were fired on 1,’ when Germany invaded Poland. The NBS is. marking this earlier anniversary by a feature at 2YA on, Saturday evening, August 30. The Consul-General of Poland in New Zealand, K. A. Wodzicki, will give a short address, and Professor Leslie Lipson, Professor of Political Science at Victoria University College, will review the outbreak of war between Germany and Poland. Hitler’s raving voice will be heard for a few moments, and at

the end of the review, there will be a récording of the late Ignace Paderewski, the famous pianist and first President of Poland, and General Sikorski, Polish Commander -in-Chief, affirming their belief in ultimate victory for their country. As announced in our cover illustration’s caption, on September 3 the NBS will review the second year of the war in a specially-prepared programme. Noises On If there is any more ingenious way of testing people’s wits than broadcasting a strange noise over the air and then asking’ them to identify it, we should like to hear of it. But that is exactly what happens in the What's That Noise Quiz, which, having met with a most encouraging reception, at 3ZB, is now broadcast from 1ZB at 6.30 p.m. on Mondays. One can’t help wondering what will be the reactions of future civilisations when they discover that this was an amusement of the people in the year 1941, Will they dismiss it as one of the insanities which symptomised the beginning of the decline of our civilisation, or will. they regard the What’s That Noise Quiz as the highest peak attained in our age? Who knows? Whatever the verdict, 1ZB listeners, who have not yet heard it, can be assured that the What’s That Noise Quiz is one of the fhost amusing yet devised by the fertile brains of the folk at the ZB stations.