Big Brother Bills' Radio Picnic.

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 34, 8 March 1929, Page 13

Big Brother Bills' Radio Picnic.

} Great Crowd of Radio Children Entertained ©

BLUE sky, a warm sun, a cool wind, and a. little farm that is cuddled in the lap of the green Dunedin hills; these are the stage proper-. ties of Big Brother Bill’s Radio Picnic. To say the number of people who were the actors sounds like an advertisement for one of the latest super-pic-tures that appear on the screen. Fifteen hundred men, women and children went to the picnic grounds in motorbuses, private cars, taxi-cabs, and on "shank’s pony.’ One thousand tickets were issued to enable transport arrangements to be made, but hundreds of people didn‘t bother about tickets at all. From 10.15 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, February 23-The Great Day -until 2.30 p.m., a constant stream of Corporation motor-buses packed with people, left 4YA studio for the farm of Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Stenhouse. Half Way Bush, which had been generously loaned for the occasion. ‘The police. with traffic inspectors, took charge of the crowds as they gathered, and, in spite of the phenomenal crush, everyhody being in the best of tempers, packed them expeditiously away on their Journey. The Picnie began with a TREASURE HUNT. A tin containing money had heen hidden in the early morning in a five-acre paddock of green broom on a hill-side. In the twinkling of an eye after (lirections had been given. the dark green broom was a background for a moving picture of vivid colours. Boys in white shirts, and girls in dresses of every colour, drifted in and out among the bushes searching for the Virate’s Hoard. After this the fun was fast and furious. The Station Director, Mr. Announcer, and others, took charge of the races and sports. Big Brother Bill, with Mr. Jack Ledgerwood, Boys’ Work Director of the Y.M.C.A., organised the field games. Aunt Shiela took charge of the Chickabiddies’ events. There hasn’t heen so much laughter and chuckling and cheering -heard among those hills since they were first piled in heaps. There were races for everyhody, from the Chickabiddie of the family to dad and mum, And prizes for ajl the winners, from the loveliest dolls and manicure sets and

boxes of handkerchiefs, to a set of boxing gloves, a live Angora rabbit, a half-dozen handsome crystal sets, and loudspeakers. There was a Hitchon’s ham for dad’s race and a goose for mum’s. AND the. fun and laughter! The pillow-fight and the greasy pole were centres for gales of it. The incidents that remain as happy memories and will provoke laughter for man), many days, were too numerous to men tion. One man took a milk bucket of orange syrup into the middle of the paddock to enable the crowd of thirsty youngsters to dip their cups; he came back again without the bucket, and his head and face streaming with sticky syrup. The eager youngsters had tripped him as he set the bucket down, and he fell head-first into the syrup. Another man was serambling lollies; at least, he meart to do so. A crowd of hefty boys dragged him down and took the tin from him. And one too curious boy fell into the pig-sty. Certainly there were p'gs in the sty, but it was hard to say who got the biggest fright. : Three hundred pounds of boiled lolHes and 200Ib. of biscuits were distriputed among the children during the day-scrambled, of course, in the good old-fashioned manner. And at the end of the day 4YA went on the air to tell the world what sort of a day it bad been. If you were lucky enough to hear the broadcast, you would tell by the community singing that closed the picnic how much everyone had enjoyed themselves. . One very pleasant thing should be recorded. Although two ambulance men were in attendance they had nothing much to do. One little girl fell down in a race and was carried to the ambulance tent, but she was not seriously hurt. And Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Stenhouse, to whom the farm belonged, on which the picnic was held, wish it to be said that not the slightest damage was done to anything on the place. Already the suggestion has been mooted that so happy an event should be an annual fixture in Dunedin, and, by all the signs and tokens, the suggestion will be given the most serious consideration. — Oe le —