WINTER IS ICUMEN IN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 407, 11 April 1947, Page 17

WINTER IS ICUMEN IN

... And Winter Course Talks With it

during domestic power-cuts may well feel that winter is already upon us, though the calendar would have us believe that autumn has a good way to go yet. But whatever listeners may feel, intimations of winter already exercise the minds of programme organisers and the Talks Department of the NZBS, for winter means Winter Course talks, and a good deal of thought and organisation goes into these series. Station 2YA has been the smartest off the mark among the main National Stations this year, the winter syllabus having begun there on April 7 with a four-programme series comprising discussions by members of the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Libraries’ Association. The general title of this series is The Library To-day, and the first discussion was on "What Libraries Can Do." Next week’s subject is "The Large and the Small," and the third discussion will show how the small library is part of a national system. The final programme in this series will be something out of the ordinary in winter course sessions. Listeners to this series have been asked to write in their questions and criticisms to "Library Session," c/o Station 2YA, and the letters which come in will be discussed in the fourth and final week, Later in the year, 2YA will present a second series of talks, this time on engineering, designed to show the role of the engineer in society today. For Auckland Film Enthusiasts Not far enough North to be winterless, 1YA Auckland opens its talks season on May 1 with a group entitled Four Aspects of the Film. The first two talks in it are on "The Film and Society," and will be given by E. A. Olssen, who has spoken before on the cinema from 1YA. He will be followed by R. T. Bowie, who will give two talks on "Discrimination and Technique." The film series will be followed by one on soil erosion. The introductory talk to this second series will be given by Dr. K. B. Cumberland, lecturer in charge of the Geography Department at Auckland University College. Particular aspects of the erosion problem will be covered in the four talks which follow. Erosion as it concerns the botanist will be discussed by Dr. H. H. Allen, Director of the Botany Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; C. M. Smith, Director of the Forestry Department deals with it from the afforestation viewpoint; Dr. L. I. Grange, Director of the Soil Bureau, D.S.1.R., will speak on soil problems; and O. G. Thornton, of the Public Works Department, Auckland, will explain the engineering problems which arise out of erosion. Science and Philosophy Dunedin has already laid comprehensive plans for two series of talks, and a third is already being organised. The first series, on Recent Scientific Developments will begin on April 29 with an up-to-the-minute talk on "The World Race for Minerals," given by Dr. C. Osborne Hutton, senior lecturer in Geology at Otago University, On May 6, 6 listeners who are en-

Sir Charles Hercus will speak on! "Preventive Medicine," and he will be followed a week later by M. J. McDowell, Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry at Otago University, whose subject will be "Fibres, Rubbers, and Plastics." I. D. Blair, who is Lecturer jn Microbiology at Canterbury Agricultural College, will speak on May 20 on recent scientific developments in agriculture, and the final talk in this series, on May 27, dealing with the processing and storage of foodstuffs, is to be given by H. G. Woolman. Science gives way to philosophy in 4YA’s second course series, The Man, the Times, and the Theory, beginning on June 10. The idea behind this series was to take several representative political philosophers and show the relation between their characters, the social circumstances of the times in which they lived, and the theories they propounded. The philosophers so far chosen are Plato, Machiavelli, Voltaire, John Stuart Mill, and Marx. There will be six talks in the series, but the subject of one talk is not fixed yet. Among the speakers will be F. W. Guest (Plato), Professor F. W. Mitchell (Machiavelli), Professor R. C. Silver (Voltaire), Professor D. D. Raphael (Mill), and Harold Silverstone (Marx). A third series from 4YA, Climate and Weather, is at present being organised by B. J. Garnier, Lecturer in Charge of the Department of Geography at Otago University. There will be five talks in this course, of which the first two will be given by G. D. A. Anderson, education officer at Otago University Museum (who was in the R.N.Z.A.F. meteorological service during the war), and the final two by Mr. Garnier. Details of the winter course series from 3YA have not yet been completed.