"THIS IS NEW ZEALAND"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 482, 17 September 1948, Page 8

"THIS IS NEW ZEALAND"

BBC Programme for Royal Tour AST month, readers’ will: remember, The Listener interviewed Geoffrey Bridson (senior features producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation) and Wilfred Thomas (commentator and producer for the Australian Broadcasting Commission) who were about to collect recorded material to be used by both the BBC and the ABC during the Royal Tour of New Zealand from February 28 to March 31. next year. Both men have now,. in collabora ion with the NZBS, made a brief survey of the New. Zealand scene, including a chapter on Maori life in the Rotorua district. This will be broadcast in conjunction with the day-by-day reports of the progress of the tour, which at that time will make New Zealand "front-page" radio and newspaper news in England and. Australia, Radio commentators in both -those countries will have described for them the exact scenes the Royal Party are witnessing. Geoffrey Bridson told a staff reporter of The Listener that during his stay in

Rotorua he picked up some _ good material for a dramatized documentary Maori feature, and as far as the BBC was concerned, it was probable that Maoris living in London would take part in it when it was produced*there, "It is interesting to see that the NZBS has precisely the same technique as we have in England for ouside recordings; but sometimes we have to use _ batteries, whereas for the work we have just done your Mobile Unit was able to hook up to power," he said. "At Rotorua we employed a_ short-wave’ transmitter between the commentator and ~ the recording van.

"During the Royal Tour of South Africa, people overseas not normally interested in the native people got to know quite a lot about the Zulus; now New Zealand’s native race will be featured in both the BBC Home Service and. short-wave services," he added. He-has also written a feature This Is New Zealand for use as a _.curtainraiser to the tour of New Zealand, It will be broadcast from the BBC the night before H.M.S. Vanguard berths at Welling-on, the first port of call in this country. "Tt will be somewhat unusual," he said, "because on this occasion

the story of New Zealand will be told to English listeners from the point of view of an English visitor." Mr. Bridson will produce the feature in the Production Studios of the NZBS, with New Zealand performers. The ‘incidental music, written by the New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn, will be played by the National Orchestra of the NZBS, conducted by Andersen Tyrer. The recordings made at Rotorua cover such vatied topics as the Land Development Schemes at Rotorua and Tauranga, the Tarawera eruption, and the excavation on the site of the buried villages; a short history of Tauranga and its. association with the Maori Wars, «© Maori nursing, housing schemes, the Women’s Health League, tattooing and carving; a visit to a Maori school, the thermal area at Whakarewarewa, and portions of a service in St. Faith’s

(continued from previous page) Anglican Church at Ohinemutu. Miusical items by the four leading concert parties of the Arawa people-Ngati Pikiau, Ngati Whakau, Taiporoutu Club and the Tukorangi party--were recorded. in the meeting-house at Ohinemutu. Recordings were made simultaneously for the BBC and the ABC by NZBS technicians, and six days were spent on the job. On one day a'one, recording went on for 15% hours almost without a break. Most of the time up to 1500 feet of cable’were laid out to connect the Mobile Unit with farmhouses and other places from which sound effects were required. In Whakarewarewa the van was halted at the entrance to the thermal tegion and a portable transmitter was carried in to pick up the roar of the geyser and the bubbling of the mud pools. "We were very lucky, for almost every thermal activity seemed to be specially turned on for us," one technician told The Listener. The power for these recordings was taken from a handy milk bar just across the road.

Donald Cameron (technician) toured round with the two commentators, carrying his two-way communication equipment, while C. A. Brown and H. A. Craig stayed in the van to monitor and record the information and sound effects from the scene. When recording the Maori concert parties,, both Bridson and Thomas insisted; so as to get the best possible balance, on having the soloists close to the microphone, which meant carrying it right up to the singers. And when hakas were performed, Thomas for the same reason chased the leader through his actions. On one Maori farm at Horo Horo, recordings were taken of a run of. sheep, the barking of the dogs and whistling of the drovers. Later, when the Maoris gathered round the recording van to hear the records played back, the dogs, recognising the whistles, dashed about excitedly and bewildered .by the instructions which came, apparently, from nowhere. All told, about 65 twelve-inch and sixteen-inch recordings were made from these BBC and ABC programmes.