NAME YOUR PROBLEM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 357, 26 April 1946, Page 28

NAME YOUR PROBLEM

= I LIKE Biblical names,’ said Mr. Untel. "What about calling the child Naomi?" "You know quite well that Mother would have liked an Irish name," replied his wife. "We shall call her Colleen." * * * IKE many another couple with their firstborn, they just couldn’t agree. The cynic would say that Colleen would be the label, anyway, but the parents decided on an arbitration agreement and asked Station 2ZB to umpire. Would one of the woman announcers suggest a name? A list was prepared and submitted, but whether that provoked another argument, or little Miss Untel became Rebecca or Delilah, Colleen or Kitty, the station did not hear. In any case, the business of helping in the naming of children is only a minor aspect of the service offered to women listeners by the Commercial stations. There is a regular collaboration with the Health Department in preparing material for broadcasting — information

on half-a-dozen vital subjects which is broadcast by the women announcers, in addition to their regular talks. This material is gathered and written up in form suitable for radio by Alice Hall, a head office copywriter who specialises in research in women’s topics. Much of the information is received through the good offices of Dr. H. B. Turbott, of the Health Department, and every piece of such advice is authoritative. It has been approved by the Department and the radio script has also been checked. Mainly for Country Mothers In the main, these service sessions are for country mothers. They are broadcast to help bring modern developments in home science into the home itself. Nutrition, balanced diets and mothercraft are popular subjects with listeners in localities visited only occasionally by the district nurse. General care of children up to the age of two or three years is explained, with stress on periods of rest and play, and feeding; and this is followed by more advanced tuition. In the dental hygiene service, mothers are told how to correct habits likely to lead to malformation of a child’s teeth, and how to choose foods of value in building up healthy mouths. A certain amount of child psychology is explained, and mothers are given hints on how to make a child look on the dentist as a sort of scientific Santa Claus, rather than as a possible source of some discomfort. Information on many topics beyond health in — home is sifted and prepared by Mrs. Hall. A series of biographies of famous women called for extensive research and documentation and at the moment she is gathering information about jewels and precious stones, '"Do yeu get many inquiries about slimming?" we asked. "Yes, and we will be presenting a series of talks about that shortly. Some methods, you see, can be injurious; we will offer information about safe and approved systems." "And do problems of domestic harmony eve? come to you for solution?" "Yes, we do get them now and then, and we do our best. But we concentrate more on the health talks I have described, and in that work we are much in debt to the Health Department for its help."