Base Metal
HEN the Mobile Recording Unit undertook to record at first hand from the older residents something of
the history of Otago in their programme History and Harmony in Otago, they tackled a difficult job. Those who know the story can’t tell it: those who could tell it don’t know it. So they must have had every reason to conclude that the best thing to do was to compromise, to
let the more articulate tell their stories and cut the rest off -the tape or collect the information and retail it themselves. Which I think was a sound conclusion. And then some demon whispered in their ear that it was a pity fo tell the
stories as simple reporters. What a lark it would be to have two of them dress up with false beards and whiskers and assume what they fondly hoped were Central Otago accents and pretend to be old-timers. I heard them at it first in the Dunstan programme and sure enough they bobbed up in CromwellHarry and his chum-on Monday night, October 3. No doubt they tell the stories more slickly than they were told originally, but against the gold of the genuine old-timer they show up as base metal. In a programme that brings to us the very voices of old-time Central, they offend as a sort of forgery.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19491021.2.20.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 539, 21 October 1949, Page 12
Word count
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225Base Metal New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 539, 21 October 1949, Page 12
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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