THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 176, 6 November 1942, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

N November 10 at 10.45 a.m. 1YA will begin a series of readings by Miss Cecil Hull of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, which will be continued on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same time. Although the book was written in 1797-8 at a time when England was in the throes of the long wars with Napoleon, the quiet tenor of her writing shows none of this stress. It is this that endears Jane Austen to her readers, who will look forward to this opportunity of hearing one of her lesserknown novels. Caveat Emptor As Mr. Metro of M.G.M. might say, we take pleasure in presenting Man Through the Ages: The Keeper of the Caves (2YA, Sunday week). As it hap-

pens, our second cousin, Ludovic MacAbre, is the present Hereditary Keeper of the Caves (or more accurately, caves). Like that Of the Traditional Sixpence Banger, at present Ludo’s half-brother Mungo MacHinery (him that was married on Elspeth Ecclefechan), the office dates from Roman times. It was then the duty of the MacAbres to keep cave near Hadrian’s Wall while forays were in progress. If the Valeria Victrix showed up, the MacAbres gave the alarm and the MacHineries would at once grab their gasmasks and bang furiously on their sixpences until the daily pipers could come to their assistance, Listen then to 2YA on November 15 for stirring tales of olden times, and if they do not quite measure up to our expectations, don’t blame us. Like the purchaser, you have been warned. Help for Santa Claus Youngsters of to-day are generally told that the shortage of toys is due to the war, but the children of the new serial in the CBS children’s session find that it is not the drift of metals to armament factories, but Grumble Grubs in Rainbowland who are rapidly destroying the raw materials for toys and threatening to break down the Santa Claus Christmas Eve Toy Delivery Service. The adventures of these two children, Dawn and Dave, and their attempts to help Father Christmas to get rid of the Grumble Grubs are the basis of Beyond the Rainbow. (1ZB Tuesday and Friday; 2ZB Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; 3ZB Tuesday and Wednesday; 4ZB Monday and Wednesday, all at 5

p.m.; and 2ZA Thursday and Friday, at 5.30 p.m). The story was written by P, T. Hall, of Christchurch, and produced by Bryan O’Brien of 2ZB. Before And After We are told that there is no such thing as a straight line, so should not be surprised to find that after science and the Winter Course talks from Dunedin have advanced all the way to the Science of To-morrow we should be back again next Tuesday with Socrates somewhere in the fifth century B.C. Whether this is a step forward or whether the following week takes us back to cave-man beginnings, only time and future NBS programmes will show, but we look forward to this big jump that takes us right round to Socrates and Dr. Richard Lawson’s handling of him as a scientist. Men of Letters "Some Memorable Letters," the subject of Professor T. D. Adams’s session from 4YA on Friday week, will no doubt suggest to many such well-known combinations as S.P.Q.R., W.A.A.F., E. and O.E., H. and C., etc. But it is only fair to point out that the speaker will be mainly concerned with letters which can properly be described as communications. Those, for example, which Lord Chesterton wrote to his son (or was it G, K. Chesterfield?), those of the Marquise de Sévigné to La Rochefoucauld, of Keats to sweet Fanny Brawn, or of H.M. Commissioners of Inland Revenue to Ourselves, Ours to the said Commissioners are not likely to be included. Verba volant, scripta manent.