THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 551, 13 January 1950, Page 26

THINGS TO COME

HENEVER -- Englishmen gather together to discuss poetry, the name of Burns is greeted with a somewhat strained embarrassment. The truth is, of course, that the ignorant Sassenach doesn’t know what Rabbie is talking about when he writes of learigs, or crowlin’ ferlies. So, south of the Border, Burns is either ignored, damned, or investigated as an interesting foreign poet. But a Scot, whether he is in Aberdeen or New Lynn, cannot keep anything to do with Burns on a cold intellectual level. Station 1YA listeners can share the Scottish enthusiasm at 8.30 p.m. on Saturday, January 21, when the Burns Anniversary Celebration of the New Lynn St. Andrews Society will be broadcast. After the Address to a Haggis, Selkirk Grace, There Was a Lad, and The Immortal Memory, the Minister of Education, the Hon. R. M. Algie, will gie, pardon, give an address. Wise children, anticipating a change in their poetical syllabus next year, could do worse than start searching the second-hand bookshops for slim, cheap volumes of Burns. Walking Softly HE dust raised by the Frances Hodgkins affair still hangs over Christchurch, the underside of the cloud glowing rosily, like dust over a volcano. Briefly, the affair was caused by the inability of two groups of people to adopt the same approach towards modern art. No one would advocate a standardised approach, but if art is not to suffer, there. must be at least a narrow plank "across the chasm which separates the. groups. To do himself justice, the critic needs, among other things, information. Charles Brasch, poet and writer, will inform listeners to the 2YA Women’s session of his approach to modern painting.at 11.0 a.m. on Thursday, January 19. This is the Law HE English are not a notably litigious race. They do not like to go to law to settle their personal quarrels, and they prefer to say, yes they will do such and such a thing, rather than sit down and draw up a detailed contract. It follows from this that most of us are hopelessly vague about the law, and every now and then some explanation of our rights and duties under it is most welcome and necessarv. Members of the

) Canterbury District | Law Society will | provide this explanation in a series of six talks during 3YA’s° Mainly for Women session, starting at 2.45 p.m. on Wednesday, January | 18, and continuing te the same time

‘ eS | and day each week, | The subjects discussed will be general | principles, traditions, the rule of law, _| New Zealand’s Courts, the law of. pro- ' perty as it concerns women, and wills-

what they are, how they are made, and what happens if you don’t make a will. How Green are Your Fingers? LTHOUGH our gardening experience is strictly limited to those wild oats we sowed in flowerpots, we feel that it’s a pity we didn’t meet the Gardening Expert earlier. Here is one who, the programme schedules tell us, will discourse from Station 3YA at 7.15 p.m. on Monday, January 16, on Doubts and Difticulties. Does this talk deal with Snail (plural) with whom we fought a losing battle, with Slug and Bug? Shall we be told to plant potatoes by the light of what moon, when to harvest the cress we are growing in our offspring’s sandtray, the bean sprouts we tend with loving care, their roots happy in a piece of flannel (hydroponics)? What did we Jo wrong that the chervil failed to appear, that the violas were nipped in the bud? Was it foul brood? (no, no, of course not we remember now, that’s bees). Join the Circle of Eager Ears next Monday, when all will be made plain. In the Gaelic Manner A CEILIDH, we are told, is one of "those peculiarly Gaelic music-cum-dancing occasions where the old songs are sung, some extremely vigorous dances are danced and a good time is had by all. The authentic atmosphere comes over well in the BBC programme Irish Rhythms, in which listeners can hear traditional Irish songs and dances specially arranged by David Curry, who bases his arrangements on the popular dance rhythms of the Ceilidh Band. The players are the Irish Rhythms Orchestra with the Ulster Singers (conductor John Vine), and Frank McDonald (tenor). Irish Rhythms will be heard from 3YA at 7.30 p.m. on Monday, January 16. \ Wise to be Right A LOT of people would have been happier now (and a lot more people in the future), if they had been quite sure they knew what they were talking about before they started talking. Going a little further, there is no doubt that many people who were right, and said so, would have done much better to have remained content to know they were right without saying so. In other words, think twice before you speak, and then don’t.say it. That is the theme of Where Was Wych Street? an NZBS production to be broadcast from 4YA at 8.24 p.m. on Wednesday, January 18. Norman Hillas adapted Stacy Aumonier’s neat, tightly-constructed short story for radio drama, and the story has lost nothing in adaptation. A Mayor on Britain "MIGHT be the Cairngorms," says the Scottish visitor to Central Otago, when the evening light dims and he can’t see the effect of rabbits and a ‘low rainfall as he could at bright noon, Or "Might be a loch," he says, hauling a quinnat salmon out of Lake Wanaka, And indeed it might be, if he doesn’t look too closely at the size of the rivers

or the height of Mt. Aspiring. Sir Donald and Lady Cameron; Dunedin's Mayor and Mayoress, have been touring England and Scotland testing this theory of similarity for themselves, One of the first duties Sir Donald will undertake on his return to Dunedin will be to give three talks from 4YA on the highlights of the tour to which the inhabitants of Otago, always eager to hear what is going on north of the Tweed, and even kindly interested in the soft southern English, will no doubt listen eagerly. The first talk is at 7.15 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17, and the next two on succeeding Tuesdays, January 24 and 31, at the same time. Paragon of Animals "OF all the world’s great heroes’"-but don’t let’s go into that for they’re almost certain to be men, And, says Jess Whitworth in the title to the series of five talks she is now giving from 1YA, I am Tired of Great Men. She made that point pretty clear in her first talk which was broadcast on January 19 when she told listeners that "the trousered species . . . the paragon of animals" still holds the upper hand; it is essentially a man’s world still, but there are signs of revolt on every hand. There is no need for a battle of the sexes, however. Co-operation is wanted, not competition or animosity, and it would be a great mistake for the female to ape th® male, she said, for woman has her own genuine contribution to make, In subsequent talks, which will be heard on consecutive Thursday evenings at 7.15 Jess Whitworth will elaborate her views on "Women in Art" with particular emphasis upon their contributions to the fine arts. Backroom Boys HE programme in the BBC series Picture Parade, to be heard from Station 4YA at 2.1 p.m. on Sunday, January 22, features The Small Back Room, a straight film adaptation of Nigel Balchin’s well-known book about the Backroom Boys-the scientists who contributed so much to the Allied victory. The Small Back Room is a study in realism and the book with its almost uncannily accurate picture of certain aspects of that strange world behind the scenes, created something of a sensation when it appeared during the war. The > leading characters are truthfully portrayed. David Farrar in his portrait of the war-time Scientific research-worker is never allowed to seem in doubt of his ability to handle a particularly dangerous kind of bomb, dropped by a Nazi plane on the Welsh coast, Farrar and Kathleen Bryon "Susan" of the film) both take part in this radio programme, which presents a close and satiric por- _ trayal of Civil Service life in..wartime. Some of this is irresistibly funny, as in the sudden visit to the research unit of | a Minister. who understands nothing about science. Listeners will also hear the producers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger discussing with Leslie Mitchell some aspects of the picture, including the surrealist scene of Sammy and the whisky bottle which caused so much heated discussion when the picture was first shown in Britain. The broadcast includes excerpts from the sound track of the film and gives some interesting glimpses into the making of an outstanding British picture.