THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 466, 28 May 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Hudson’s Last Voyage HE story of Hudson’s attempts to find a North West passage to China, and the events which led to his being. marooned in an open boat on the icy waters of the Arctic, are told !a dramatic form in the BBC programme Henry Hudson, which will be heard from 2YA at 9.30 a.m. this Sunday, May 30, Hudson made

four voyages all told, and on the last and fatal one of 1610-11 he spent several months exploring the the coasts of Hudson Bay in his 55ton ship Discovery. In the spring, when the ship broke out

of the ice, he quarrelled violently with one of his crew named Henry Greene, who persuaded the rest of the discontented crew to put Hudson and eight others out of the ship. On the voyage back Greene was killed in a fight with Eskimos, others of the rebels died of starvation, and the remainder were thrown into prison when they arrived in England. Nothing further was heard of the deserted men. Although the regions named after Hudson had been discovered before his voyages, he explored further than his predecessors. The English fisheries at Spitzbergen and the fur industry of the Bay were the immediate fruits of his labours. Authors and Critics VERY intelligent reader must at some time or other have felt like sitting down with his favourite author and asking him a few pertinent questions about his books and the way he came to write them. There’s not much chance of doing that in a country as sparsely populated with.writers as New Zealand is, but an opportunity is given to listeners to hear several writers being put through their paces by the critics in the BBC series The Reader Takes Over, which is being broadcast on Sundays from 3YA (at 2.30 p.m.) and 4YA (at 2.1 p.m.). In each case, so as not to make the questions and answers too highbrow, amatezr as well as_ professional critics take part. The authors interviewed are Rose Macaulay, Louis Golding, Norman Collins, A. G, Street, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Dr. C. E. M. Joad. Among the critics are Kingsley Martin, editor of the New Statesman and Nation, Daniel George, Randal Swinger, Lionel Hale, and Dr. B. Ifor Evans. Studio Concerts HE BBC Transcription Service has -recorded a series of London Studio Concerts especially for issue to radio stations outside Britain. Classical works for small orchestra are played by the London Radio Orchestra conducted by Denis Wright, and the New London String Ensemble under Maurice Miles (whose photo appears on page 21). Besides conducting, Maurice Miles plans musical broadcasts for the LatinAmerica Service of the BBC. Before the war he was Municipal Music Director at Bath and Buxton, and visited South America to conduct orchestras ‘n the various state capitals. He joined

the BBC after his return to England on the outbreak ‘of war. The first of these programmes features music by Moszkowski, Hamilton MHarty , and Delibes, and the succeeding concerts in the series (there are 13 in all) include Parry’s Symphonic Variations, symphonies by Vivaldi and William Boyce, and string music by Dvorak, Bach, Herbert Murrill, Arensky and William Byrd. London Studio Concerts start from 2YD at 9.0 p.m. on Monday, May 31. Hawke’s Bay Romance ANY of us tend to live and work in a place without ever finding out much about its background and historical associations. Residents of Hawke’s Bay who want to know more about the romantic history of their own province will be interested in the series of Winter Course Talks which Station 2YH will broadcast at 7.15 p.m. on Tuesdays, beginning on June 1. The title of the serigs is Know Your Own Province, and it has been prepared by W. A. Armour, a former headmaster of Wellington College. The talks look at the province from four points of view-the historical, scientific, educational, and _ literary aspects of Hawke’s Bay’s early days are dealt with by various speakers, and they should do something towards explaining those things that have gone to make the district one of the favoured provinces of New Zealand. The first talk, given by J.. M. Reidy, discusses the subject, "Hawke’s Bay Under Provincial Government." On Choreography VV HAT is Choreography? Even balletomanes are in New Zealand a little vague about the dance design of ballet, and so the NZBS has seized upon the rare opportunity of having a noted

choreographer in the country to ask him about his work. In an interview to be broadcast from 1YA at 7.0 p.m. on Monday, May 31, Walter Gore of the Ballet Rambert describes how a ballet is built up from inspiration to finished performance. He also discusses the influence of Nijinski, Fokine and Massine en choreography and differences between classical and modern ballet, Greatest Library NDER the dome of the reading room of the British Museum in London, 60,000 books line the walls. The corridors and passages outside house another five millions. The catalogues alone run to 1,400 volumes, and the numbers are growing all the time. Figures like these are remarkable enough in themselves, but they are only part of the story of the reading room to be heard in the BBC programme Under the Dome, from 3YL at 9.30 p.m, on Sunday, June 6.

Cloak and Dagger Courtier SK the average person what he knows about Sir Walter Raleigh and he will probably mention the colonizing of Virginia, the introduction of tobacco into England, or the gallant cloak-and-puddle episode with Good Queen Bess. But what of the man who plotted against James I. and was beheaded for his pains? How much do we know of his exploring of South America for the fabulous gold mines of El Dorado, his conquest of Cadiz, his ruthless suppression of the Irish? Or of the other side of him-the quick-witted courtier who was arrested several times for duelling, who scribbled verses with a diamond on a pane of glass to attract the Queen’s attention and was a close friend of the poet Spenser? And how many know he was for a time the most unpopular person in England because of his greed, arrogance, and unscrupulous use of Royal influence, that he was named as an atheist, and imprisoned in the tower through. his affection for one of the Queen’s maids of honour? The fascinating story of Raleigh’s complex personality, set against those turbulent Elizabethan days of fighting abroad and intrigue at home, is told in the BBC programme A Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh, to’ be heard from 4YA at 2-1 p.m.‘ on Friday, June 4, and 2YA 9.30 a.m. on Sunday, June 6. Down on the Farm NSTEAD of bringing farmers to the studio as is customary for the midday farm talks, 1YA, for the session to be heard at 12.34 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1, decided to take the studio (in the form of a recorder) to the farmers. Opportunely a farm school, conducted by farmers’ organisations and the Department of Agriculture, was being held at Pukekohe, and the recording unit repaired there with a view to bringing farmers to the microphone in the open fields. Heavy rain, however, drove them to a cowshed, and there against the background noise of milking machines, three farmers, under the chairmanship of a member of the Department of Agriculture, exchanged ideas on the feeding of winter stock.