THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 118, 26 September 1941, Page 3

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

E do not know if it is because of the sorry figure which humanity is cutting in this day and age, but animals seem to be figuring fairly prominently in the programmes next week. At 2YA, for example, five hundred thousand dogs are scheduled to go to town on Sunday evening, on Friday forenoon Mrs. Mary Scott will be heard from 1YA talking about her animal friends, and from 4YA there are to be two broadcasts dealing with the lower orders of creation. J. J. Hinchcliffe and G. M. Luke will be heard on Tuesday on "Animal Welfare," and on Friday evening Dunedin’s topical Professor T. D, Adams will demonstrate that he is, as usual, completely en rapport with the prevailing trend by giving readings on animals, Perhaps these broadcasts show that the NBS has chosen the better part. " Animals," as George Eliot said, "are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." Anatomy of Democracy One of the most interesting talks which he has yet given in the series Democracy Through the Ages is that which Professor F, L. W. Wood will present from 2YA on Monday next on "The Strength and Weakness of French Democracy." Since the fall of France there have been few topics which have aroused more conflicting opinions in the outside world. Did France fall because she went too far to the left or too far to the right? Did the national rot start at the top or at the bottom, and did the forty-hour week

or the 200 families constitute the causa causans? These questions have been posed in a hundred different ways and have brought as many different answers. Professor Wood’s talk, however, should go far towards giving us a more accurate picture of the contemporary French political scene, and from that we should be able to draw more worthwhile conclusions. Jones Goes Fishing On behalf of our artist, we apologise for the bewhiskered libel represented by the drawing which appears below, but it

will at least serve to draw attention to the topical talk (not BBC), " Jones Goes Fishing," which will be given by "Black Gnat" from 2YA on Tuesday next. Needless to say, the talk is topical in view of the anglers’ " opening day" on October 1, but since we have not the intuitive advantages of our artist we cannot give any indication of its nature. If it is going to be serious, then Russell Clark is in grave danger of being hooked, gaffed, and generally ironed out for piscatorial lése majesté. If " Black Gnat" proposes to deal lightly with his subject, then perhaps his colleagues will be content to deal lightly with ours. Teachers and Pupils Listeners who take malevolent pleasure in sharp contrasts between old and new in music should be interested in two intriguingly titled programmes from 2ZB on Friday evenings. At 9.30 comes Songs My Mother Taught Me, which is a pretty thought, and one which should present scope for playing once again some of those old favourite songs which we learned long ago at our mothers’ knees. But then at 9.45, just to remind us that we are living in a_ slightly cynical, matter-of-fact world, comes the session Songs I Teach My Mother, which is presumably an attempt to introduce our parents to the latest trends in popular music, The idea has its merits but all observations lead to the conclusion that the mother of to-day is pretty well abreast of things, and that on the whole there aren’t many songs she can be taught. However, it’s just as well to humour these young people sometimes. Ova Pro Nobis If (at the time of writing) we had been still wondering whether there would or would not be a General Election, our doubt would have been dispelled by the announcement that the A.CE, would

present a talk from 4YA on Wednesday next on the subject, "Eggs For All." An election without eggs is, of course, unthinkable — it would be like duck without green peas, plum divorced from apple, beer minus skittles. In fact, you can’t have an election, any more than you can have an omelette, without breaking eggs. All of which goes to show what a deep debt of almost everlasting gratitude we owe to the A.C.E. Not What You Think In a recent film starring Fred Astaire, a famous American swing band appeared as one of the appurtenances to the cast. Considerable dissension was caused among swing fans as to whether the film starred Artie Shaw and his Band with Fred Astaire, or vice versa. All were agreed, however, that the band was good, and among the numbers they played was a little opus called "Concerto for Clarinet." We would remind listeners that this was written by Mr. Shaw and is not to be confused with the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A Major by Mozart, which will be heard from 1YA on Friday, October 3, played by Reginald Kell on clarinet with Malcolm Sargent and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Cakes and Ale We do not know what line Professor F. Sinclaire intends to take when he speaks from 3YA next Wednesday on the text, "Dost think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Certainly we can be sure that he will not deal with his text as literally as Russell Clark, who seems to pin his

colours to the older adage, "Let us eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow on But humour seems to be a factor common to both the speaker and his illustrator. We feel, in short, that whatever the Professor says he will show that good humour and good fellowship are as important ingredients in the soul of England as any of the sterner virtues, The Original Snow White Thanks to Walt Disney, there are few children now who are not familiar with the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but how. many know that there really was a beautiful princess who was persecuted by a wicked stepmother, that the princess fled to the friendly shelter : of a house owned by a quaint colony of dwarfs, that she ate a poisoned apple and sank into a death-like sleep from

which she was awakened by the kiss of a dashing young prince? Perhaps it would be more correct to say that there is some slight doubt of the historical accuracy of these facts, but that there is a very plausible account of it in Hans Andersen’s tales. These, unfortunately, are little read by modern children, who as we said, were probably first introduced to Snow White through Mr. Disney. Snow White, before we forget, has been dramatised in the ZB series of Tales and Legends, and will be heard from 4ZB at. 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, October 2. Spice Isles and Gold Mines Never has an age in English history presented a wider panorama of vigorous healthy life than that of Good Queen Bess, never has one been so variegated in its colours, so exciting in the things lying just outside the boundaries of its knowledge. Courtiers wrote exquisite love-lyrics to please the ladies, dramatists produced popular noisy plays, and the prose writer recorded the great deeds of his contemporaries. Hakluyt was one of the latter, writing down the words of mariners as they related stories of their journeys to exotic Cipango, the Canaries, San Christobal. They carried slaves and spices, plundered cities, and licked the Spaniards with equanimity. G. A. Naylor will read some of Hakluyt’s tales from 1YA on Friday next, and, since these deeds inspired later writers, too, will include extracts from Kingsley’s "Westward Hol"