Voyage of Discovery

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 487, 22 October 1948, Page 8

Voyage of Discovery

‘THE BBC’s special programme for New Zealand on Dominion Day reminded me of a famous Liberal cartoon depicting the surprise of leaders of the Conservative Government at the successes of the Boers in the early stages of the South African War. "By Jove, Arthur, they’ve got horses!" "Yes, Joe, and guns!" There was a naive touch of discovery about the BBC programme. "I say, here’s a red patch in the South Pacific; let’s go and have a look at it!" So they found New Zealand, and then proceeded to tell this country all about itself. This may have had some value for the outside world, but to salute a Dominion by informing it of local conditions and achievements with which its people are quite familiar, strikes one as odd. Then there was that stock figure, the Englishwoman who is surprised to find that a New Zealander is of much the same clay as her own countrymen. However, this airman guest from New Zealand was rather a crude chap; he addressed his hostess as "Missus" and told her something would be "jake." "Jake?" she commented. ""What’s that?" These queer colonials! And they must include "Now is the

Hour." . Are we ever to get away from the tune? At the risk of being considered hopelessly adolescent, may New Zealanders suggest to the BBC that they prefer to be treated as grown-ups, their country not as a curiosity, but as part of the recognised furnishings of the world? Also that a special programme addressed to a Dominion should be an English programme-related to that Dominion of course, but still English? Would we greet England with a detailed description of Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London?