A VOICE FROM THE KITCHEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 671, 16 May 1952, Page 5

A VOICE FROM THE KITCHEN

Sir,-I should like to know why the programme organisers at 1YZ Rotorua considered J. B. Priestley’s play The Linden Tree unsuitable listening for mothers and housewives. So it would seem, because if they had tried really hard I doubt whether they could have found any hour out of the 24 when a housewife is less likely to be able to sit down and enjoy a play than between 10.30 and 12.0 in the morning. Being a Sunday morning it was eminently suitable for the five-day-a-weeker; but Sunday, Thursday, or Pancake Day, it’s all the same to the housewife. The play sounded wonderful, too, judging from the excerpts I heard as I poked porridge into the baby, tossed up scones for morning tea, washed napkins, polished the bedroom floor, and cut a salad for lunch. Is there any reason why this play could not have been broadcast in the evening? Is there any reason why 1YZ cannot relay the 11 a.m. church service and leave Sunday evenings free for full-length plays? Time was when 1YZ had a half-hour play (albeit of indifferent standard) on

Monday nights, but for some inscrutable reason even that is now denied us. Thus the poor neglected housewife, when her day’s work is done, has to content herself with such fare as Eb and Zeb, Experiment with Time, and the ever-last-ing pegs upon which is hung a quarterhour of recordings such as "Sweet Rhythm" and "Voices with Appeal." Therefore, on behalf of all my Bay of Plenty sisters in exile in the kitchen I request that The Linden Tree be presented again from 7.30 to 9 one evening,

WET HEN

(Mt. Maunganui).

("Wet Hen" argues so persuasively without help that it is almost ungracious-but it is necessary-to say that other arguments than hers have helped to end the experiment of Sunday morning plays. But hers will be the sole credit of bringing The Linden Tree back F 1YZ for a repeat evening presentation.- )