Distinguished Lecturer from 2YA

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 41, 24 April 1931, Page 5

Distinguished Lecturer from 2YA

Will Lawson Before the Microphone | 1 QN= of the best-known authors in the southern hemisphere . will broadeast shortly from 2YA. This is Mr. Will Lawson, the distinguished. prose writer and poet. He will be heard in a lecture on the East, a subject in itself fascinating, but which will be doubly so when in the capable hands of this speaker. In 1893, Mr. Lawson started out on. his eareer in the A.M.P., Wellington, and until 1912 he pursued the vocation of a clerk. In the meantime, however, he also wrote and published two booke of verse. Wishing to pay more attention to poetic work, he relinquished his position, later proceeding to Blenheim to do publicity work for the Progress League. From there he went to Sydney: and held’ positions on the "Bulletin" and "Smith’s Weekly." During thie time he devoted more time to authorship and began to publish a series of books, for which he has become justly famous. They include "Pacific Steamers," a story of trading between New Zealand and Australia, "Three Kings, and Other Verses," "Steam in the Pacific," "Stokin’.and Other Verses," printed in New Zealand, "Between the Lights," and "Red West Road." — ‘More recently Mr. Lawson visited , Japan and U.S.A., then New Zealand on the Malolo, On the present trip he will be in New Zealand for a short time on business, and will take the opportunity of speaking from 2YA and 4YA, PURING the war, Mr. Lawson performed service in the training camps, and on one occasion was travelling from Australia to New Zealand when the German raiders Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were cruising in the Pacific. At the time of the crossing in question, these two cruisers were coming down the Queensland coast, It was in the days when radio was-in its infancy and few ships were equipped with it, but the Moeraki, on which he was travelling, was. Imagine the consternation of the officers when the wire~ less operator picked up a message from one of these ships and learned that they were only 150 miles from Sydney, and before long could be expected to appear on the horizon in quest for plunder. "Of course," added Mr. Lawson, in telling us of the adventure, "none of the passengers knew, and we kept the fact well hushed up. We were afraid to use our radio because that would give away our position. We knew that the Sydney and a French cruiser were neer Sydney harbour and that the raider would not venture there. However, when we were ‘out of earshot’ we. radioed the French cruiser and totd her of the proximity of the raider, which, however, had turned back, and was by this time making north. That was my introduction to radio-not #lbogether a pleasant one."