Annotations of Annabel

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 13, 23 November 1928, Page 13

Annotations of Annabel

DEAREST: A night of nights was the fatal fourteenth, and the most passe or blase could hardly be unaware of the thrill of the moment. The unexpected happened. We were all so comfortably confident that the Reform Government again would be in the middle of the map; and behold, it was not ! | HE office of this paper, fitted with fascinating telephonic and wireless apparatus, was a veritable illuminant to the mind of your Annabel, lingering on the outskirts of efficient coterie upon which devolved privilege of informing listening microcosm of the way things were. IVID impression remains of sea of upturned faces in street below, in cessant tinkle of this telephone and that, laconic inquiries, hurried passage from one room to another with sheaves and slips of papers bearing figures from City Suburbs, Auckland East, Oamaru, Dunedin, any old place. Deep voice and measured articulation of announcer telling those surprising numbers, and-at long last-ultimate result of the Election of 1928. And what a result! For surprise, sting in its tail, card up its sleeve, it beat cock-fighting; the Tasman flight receded into the limbo of a tale that is told, and the Byrd Expedition for the moment loomed but shadowy mirage of the future.

TWAS hard to realise that those. meticulous accents, ringing through office rooms to serried block of humanity that stretched away and away into darkness beyond, also carried tidings to countless homes in the backblocks, isolated whares and solitary stations; likewise’ to many a sick or sorrowful soul, and to gallant soldiers of war who, in hospital, find content and entertainment in that friend who never fails, the kindly, companionable radie. O flair do I possess for knowledge of steering of ship of state; and for political personalitics and potentates that were, and are, and are to come, I have, so to speak, no nose. Yet regrets afflict me. Triste am I, for instance, that no more shall I listen and learn from Mr. Rolleston, whom to look at was to love, although evidently many of his constituents thought otherwise. Also some of us are sad over political de-

mise of Mr. Hawken and Mr. McLeod, who did the country much good during short sojourn in limelit arenas of Lands and Agriculture. N what was assuredly Wellington’s coldest night, though but a month from longest day of Sidey summer-time, I heard a lecture given to the University Women’s Club by Mrs. M. L. Hannah, on that interesting and neglected subject, the Literature of New Zealand. (GRACEFULLY gowned in jetted, diaphonous black, pink-posied and wrapped in shawl of an Eastern colour and allure calculated to arouse envy in frail, feminine hearts, the lecturer appeared very youthful to have attained to such sureness of judgment and serenity of mental poise; and covered a surprisingly wide field in the flying hour in which, with discrimination and illuminating comment, she spoke of known and unknown writers of this country; where, in the old, old fashion, prophets are usually unhonoured and unsung until the wider world heaps laurels upon them, OWARDS the conclusion of the lecture characteristic and interesting extracts were read from writers of widely divergent qualities, amongst them Alan Mulgan, Katherine Mansfield, Jessie Mackay and Siegfried EHichelbaum. Mrs. Hannah’s interpretation of "A Windy Day" was pure delight, bringing out the subtle nuances of intuition and observation of that New Zealand-born genius who died so young; and most attragtive was a wistful poem of the coming of the Christ-child, written by Eileen Duggan, and possessed of a Celtic strain of haunting mysticism. Tribute was paid to the plays of Mr. Charles Allen; "The Singing Heart" and "When Mr. Punch was Young" being described as very beautiful and lovely work. (THE lecture was brought to a close by the reading of charming, puckish verses, given at the request of the audience, and written by Mrs. Hannah herself. To that increasingly numerous band who grapple to themselves with hoops of steel friends of the spirit in prose and verse, it is hoped that another opportunity will soon be given of listening to Mrs. Hannah on literature, of which, with her literary acumen and cultivated taste, she is so delightful and able an exponent. Your

ANNABEL

LEE