THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 491, 19 November 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Talk on Jessie MacKay [Baste MacKAY, New Zealand authoress, who died in 1938, worked for many causes, for women’s rights and for small nationalities, and her vigorous articles won her a wide public. Educated in her gown home, she had obtained a good grounding in the English classics before she went to the Normal School in Christchurch, ~During her teaching service she was in charge of schovls at Kakahu Bush and Ashwick Flat. In 1889 her first book of Ballads appeared, to be followed in 1891 by The Sitter on the Rail. For ten years she was lady editor of the Canterbury Times and in 1908 she produced another book of verse, From the Maori Sea. Her most "considerable collection, Land of the Morning, appeared in 1909. In 1926 appeared a small gift’ volume, Bride of the Rivers, and in 1935 another volume called Vigil. A talk by Mrs. N. H. F. McLeod on Jessie MacKay, whose works appear in anthologies here and overseas, will be broadcast from 2YA in the A Woman Writes session at 1095 am. on Tunesdav. November 23.

Hadn’t We the Gaiety! "OU don’t need to have kissed the blarney stone to know that "Phil the

Fluter’s Ball" was one of the most popular songs written by that irrepressible Irish humorist Percy French. The song’s title inspired three programmes (recorded from broadcasts made in Ireland) of Percy French songs sung by George Beggs and the Irish Rhythms Orchestra. Many of them, like "Matt Hannigan’s Aunt" and "Donnegan’s Daughter," are not so well-known these days as they weré to previous generations, but the programme Phil the Fluter should win more: admirers for Percy French’s art as well as warming the hearts of the older people who once knew the words: and music of all his songs. It will be heard from 4YZ on Wednesday, November 24, at 9.30 p.m. Broadcast of Bronte Novel EMILY BRONTE who at her best was a great poet, and author (under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell) of Wuthering Heights, died a hundred years ago this year. Her famous novel was recently made into a radio play by James R. Gregson, who produced it in the BBC’s North Regional studios. The part of Heathcliffe is taken by Car] Bernard, an actor who has spent practically his whole life in the theatre and broadcasting (see photograph on page 25). His parents were on the stage and he went straight into a pantomime at the London Palladium when he left school. Since then he has acted in almost every kind of show, from revue to thrillers, and has made more than one tour of South Africa.’ He has done a great deal of acting for the BBC and was the second Paul Temple in the famous detective serials. Wuthering Heights will be heard from 2YA at 8.0 p.m. on Friday, November 26, occupying approximately an hour, = dhiiectien

Speech and Speech-training ONSIDERABLE public interest was aroused by Andrew Morrison’s talk on The New Zealand Voice (reprinted on page 7 of this issue). Now three talks by Mr. Morrison are to be broadcast from 2YA, starting at 7.15 p.m. on Monday, November 22. In the first, The Cae for Speech Training, he discusses the evils of "elocution" which, he says, "we must free from its unfortunate

connotations, and deliver from its associations with fourth-rate literature." He explains the necessity for some speech discipline in the education of our children and young men and women. In the second talk, The Study of Speech, he‘ discusses speech therapy, and the importance of literature in speechtraining. Spe*ch teachers should realise, he says, that a beautiful voice with nothing to say is just as embarrassing as tongue-tied wisdom. In his third talk, The Realities of Speech-Training, he devotes a few minutes to "some heresies on education, Some truths about culture, and some near-platitudes about

personality." These talks are delivered in a most stimulating way, and should be listened to by everyone interested in-the sounds a person makes when he opens his mouth, and in how they can be made more pleasant, and, perhaps, more intelligible. Death Before Dinner HOPING to get a knighthood out of it, a man asked some important people to dinner. His wife was suffering from an obscure ailment which, her doctor had said, might possibly cause her death. Just before the diners had adjusted their table-napkins an electric fuse in the house blew out, frightening the wife, and on top of this she caught her husband chastely embracing one of the maids. While he was busy explaining to her that there was absolutely nothing to it, my dear, the wife collapsed and died, and, during all the excitement that followed, her body was secreted in a trunk. Did the husband kill. his wife, and if not, who did? All this and a good deal more is outlined by the judge at a Supreme Court trial when he sums up for the jury, What really happened is explained in the NZBS production of Consider Your

Verdict, by Norman Edwards, which will be broadcast by 3YZ at 8.0 p.m. on Sunday, November 28. For Sunday Nights SOON after the BBC started, a thoughtful programme organiser suggested that they should have a special session to finish off Sunday night’s broadcasts. The session was called The Epiloguea short programme of between eight and 10 minutes of music and spoken word. It has a regular pattern, beginning with the announcement of the

theme to be illustrated by words and music. The BBC Singers then sing some verses of a psalm; a reader (usually an actor) reads a great. passage from the Bible; the Singers sing a hymn; and the broadcast ends with ‘a sentence or tekt from the Bible. WRecordings of several Epilogue programmes will be broadcast from 2YA, starting at 10.48 p.m. on Sunday, November 28.