THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 456, 19 March 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Salute to Otago SIRST thing in the morning on Tues- | day, March 23, the people of Otago will scan the skies and listen to the ‘broadcast weather report at 7.15 o'clock, for that Tuesday will be their big day. And at 7.18 a.m. the four main National | stations, plus 4YZ, 3ZR and 2YH, will offer a Salute to Otago, containing birthday greetings on the anniversary of the ‘province. Representative New Zealand people will take part. These greetings 'will be acknowledged in a National | broadcast originating from 4YA at 7.0 p.m. the same day. One hundred years ago, on March 23, the ship John Wick- | liffe dropped her anchor at Port | Chalmers, and from her decks 87 immi'grants from Scotland saw the shores of |a new and strange land. On_ those shbres grew up the first organised white settlement of the new-born province of | Otago, and it is the date of the Scot|tish landing that is the climax of the _whole of the southern celebrations. The {early hour for greetings has been chosen | by the NZBS because it is expected that the people of Otago will be up and about, preparing for an occasion of far more than usual importance. The preceding day, Monday, March 22, Station 4YA will present a talk at 7.0 p.m.-To-morrow’s Celebration, by H. Watson. On Tuesday, at 11.0 am. 4YA_ will relay a re-enactment of the settlers’ landing; on Wednesday, March 24, at 7.30 p.m. Centennial Survey, and at

8.55 p.m., a session called Centennial Reporter. At 9.20 p.m. on Tuesday, Station 4YZ will present a talk, Anniversary Day, by F. G. Hall-Jones. Station 4ZB will attend every function on Tuesday, taking recordings, which will be made into a half-hour presentation at 10 o’clock that evening. Exotic Fiji NTEREST created in sporting circles | by the exotic-locking Fijian cricketers, with their curly hair, white sulus, and sandal-clad feet, has no doubt made many people curious about the land from which these big-hitting stalwarts have come, and at 7.15 p.m. on Monday, March 22, 2YA will broadcast the first of three talks on Fiji by L. G. Usher, Fijian Public Relations Officer. The first talk, "The Land," gives a_ brief outline of the geography of the Colony -its area and climate, and the sugarcane, pineapple, banana and dairying industries are discussed, and there are | a few concluding words on Fiji’s racial | problems. The second talk, "The | People," describes native Fijian customs, and the part played in the country’s economy by the 120,000 Indians who live there. The third talk, "A Place to Visit," looks at the country from the tourist’s point of view, and answers the hypothetical question, "What is to be seen and what can I do if I visit Fiji?" She Married Again HOSE who saw the film Henry V. (and all students of Shakespeare) will remember the love-scenes where Henry wooed and won Catherine of France, and the royal wedding which seemed to ensure the keeping of the peace between

England and France. But Henry’s death two years later (in 1422) made Catherine a widow, and she married again. It is generally thought that Shakespeare introduced Catherine into his play to provide a touch of romance, but some critics think he may have felt that his Elizabethan audience would have a further interest in Catherine. The story of Catherine’s second marriage and its bearing on the succession to the throne of England is told in the BBC play She Married Again, in which the leading role is played by the well-known stage actress Peggy Ashcroft. She Married Again will be heard from 1YA at 10.15 p.m. on Monday, March 22, and from 2YA at 4.30 p.m. on Friday, March 26. The New Look? N a series of talks called Let’s Look At Ourselves to be broadcast from 2YA, seven women speakers will present their views on the part played by

women in the life of a modern community, with special reference to New Zealand conditions. Whether or not these talks are a part of the "new look" that the womenfolk are adopting to-day, we can’t say, but we can at least assure housewives who tune in at 10.25. a.m. next Tuesday, March 23, that they will hear plenty to interest them. The first talk is by Marion Royce, who discusses "Women as Citizens of the World." Henry V. NLIKE so many films which have been preceded by a fanfare of publicity, Henry V proved to be all that the public was led to expect, and this in no small measure due to the consummate skill of the principal actor, Sir Lawrence Olivier. All who saw the film will therefore learn with pleasure that a series of recordings of selected speeches from the play have been made by Sir Lawrence with Chorus and the Phitharmonic Orchestra, and these will be heard from 1YX at 9.58 p.m. this Saturday, March 20, in a programme which lasts half an hour. Incidental music is by Walton. The selections include the first and last chorus speeches, "Once more unto the breach," "Now entertain conjecture of a time,’ "Upon the King," St. Crispin’s Day, Battle of Agincourt, and Bergundy’s speech, Meet the Afrikaaner \WH4T sort of people are the Afrikaaners, those men and women of Dutch descent who make up about 60 per cent of South Africa’s white population of two and a half millions? In a

talk called Méet the Afrikaaner to be broadcast ,from 2YA at 7.15 p.m. on Friday, March 26, Greig Royle will tell listeners something about the historical background of the Afrikaans people, their political attitudes, and the part they play in the economic life of the Union to-day. Politically many of them are strongly "nationalistic" in outlook, and others are intensely antinative, but the greater proportion of them are fighting for a better South Africa, free from racial prejudice. Today nearly 300,000 Afrikaaners are classed as "poor whites,’ yet their history as a whole has been a vivid and colourful one of successful struggle against an inhospitable land, and from their ranks have come some of the greatest names in South African history and culture-names like Smuts, Botha, Hertzog and Olive Schreiner. Moondrop to Gascony QNE moonlit night in 1943 AnneMarie Walters, daughter of a French mother and an English father, was dropped by parachute over France, and joined the French Resistance movement. From then until after D-day she worked as a courier between various Resistance groups throughout the country, taking equal chances with the men, and continually risking death or capture by the Gestapo. Although accounts of the exploits of the Maquis have already furnished material for dozens of novels, films, and plays, the BBC programme Moondrop to Gascony, which tells the story of Anne-Marie Walters’ adventures has the advantage of being absolutely authentic, based as it is on her firsthand account as told to the script-writer Terence Tiller. The story loses nothing in dramatic suspense, however, through being a true one, and those who listen to Moondrop to Gascony when it is broadcast from 1YA at 9.43 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24, will be sure of an exciting three-quarters of an hour.