FIFTEEN MINUTES AT HOME THIS CHRISTMAS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 235, 24 December 1943, Page 7

FIFTEEN MINUTES AT HOME THIS CHRISTMAS

Recorded Greetings To Airmen In Canada

HEN a New Zealander is literally in the middle of the lone prairie in Canada, and Canadian radios persist in playing Canadian programmes in the Canadian way, always announced in a soft Canadian brogue, it is satisfying to hear Oriwa Haddon introducing the voices of a Maori choir. Partly because of this, but mainly because of the traditional spirit of Christmas, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, in co-operation with the National Broadcasting Service, recently sent by air a typically New Zealand transcription for broadcast over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s.system during the Christmas period. The broadcast will be pre-announced, and hundreds of New Zealanders undergoing air crew training in Canada will, as in former years, listen to a_ specially recorded programme, typifying music of their native land, and carrying spoken greetings from those at home.

For this year’s broadcast all the radio talent required was provided by members of the R.N.Z.A.F. Now serving with the Air Force in New Zealand is Leading Aircraftsman Oriwa Haddon, well-known for his dramatisation of Maori folk lore and legend over the air. At his North Island station Oriwa has trained a choir of Maori girls, serving as members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and this arrangement, plus Oriwa’s pleasing radio personality, became the basis of this year’s R.N.Z.A.F. Canadian greetings programme. As a background for the choral section of the pfesentation the R.N.Z.A.F. Central Band under the baton of the Director of Music for the Air Force, Flight-Lieutenant Gladstone H. Hill, supplied the accompaniment and band selections, while another section of the band under the baton of Corporal Theo Walters, well-known in Auckland and Sydney broadcasting circles, spiced the programme with modern numbers. An Air Force male voice choir provided interludes in the general presentation. As compere, L/A/C Haddon not only introduced each number, but, for the benefit of Canadian and _ civilian listeners, also explained the significance of each of the Maori items. Chief of Air Staff, R.N:Z.A.F., Air Vice-Marshal L. M. Isitt, C.B.E., sent a message to all New Zealand ranks at present serving in Canada. Besides extending seasonal- greetings to his officers and men, the Air Vice-Marshal reminded them of the debt of gratitude they owed to the Canadians for "great training, and even greater hospitality." New Zealand joined with him, he said, in saying "Thank you, Canada!" Such are the arrangements made by the R.N.Z.A.F. and NBS to give New Zealanders in Canada 15 minutes of home this Christmas. A similar programme is being prepared for broadcast to R.N.Z.A.F. boys who will spend this Christmas in the theatre of war.