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Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 8, 2 September 1932, Page 7

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SPARK

"Stations Identified" THIS true story wins "Spark’s" weekly 5/- prize for the best paragraph :- : An: amateur dxer, having just purchased a radio, naturally spent a lot of sleepless nights seeing what the ether had to offer. Asked how he was progressing, he replied: "Fine; I have had the Japs., Manila, Bombay, etc." | Asked how he identified them, he said: "Oh! I heard a noise at the frequency the salesman said they ought to be." 3

HEN Mr. Gordon’ Short announced at the Hutt Liedertafel Concert (2YA) that he would play as a recall number "Musical Box" I’m _ sorry. he. did not describe what such a thing was. ‘As the invention of the phonograph put the kybosh on the development of. this. mechanical musical instrument, theré are more people who have. not seen: one than there are who -have. I..owned one long before the gramophone era. It ‘Ya nicely polished wooden box ‘was eight inches long. with a glass lid, atid it emitted several tunes, two of which were "The Bluebells of Scotland" and "The Keel Row," so I .think it must. have come from North Britain. Inside the box was a. brass, rolling-pin thing, with the handles cut off and a piece sawn off each end. That is, it was a trifle shorter than the parallel part of a rolling: pin. .The roller had whiskers, not flowing ones,. because they were of hard steel of low percentage ductility, but just as though it had not been shaved for three days. Alongside the rolling pin affair was another gadget like ‘the elongated blade of a hair clipper. This gadget was.a bit different though, for when you looked at it from the treble end the teeth became shorter as they receded, as though you saw it in abrupt perspective or through a kind of unanastigmatic lens. If all the teeth had been the same length, when you wound the rolling pin thing up you would have got one sound only and the time of the piece. When it went the teeth didn’t go through the whiskers like a hair clipper reversed because the whiskers would have stopped it if they didn’t break off. If they broke off there wouldn’t have been-any tune at all. Mine had several teeth bent or broken off, so it sounded very realistic and like a performer with poorly developed technique. It may be that only those wh¢é have seen one of these mechani¢al marvels will recognise this word picture, and as it is hard to explain, I can now understand why Mr. Short omitted to try. * e * HEN listening to Mr. Drummond reading the news one evening last week, I was surprised to hear that the Australian police had recently made a "new" discovery, that Chinese were importing counterfeit Australian silver coins, mostly shillings, into the Commonwealth. We were informed that Australian silver coinage was very cheap in China, and anyone trafficking in the real article could make a profit of eight per cent China has had twenty years of revo: lution, and that says mighty little fo:

1 our big neighbour’s currency. What intrigued me was the information that after exhaustive assaying it was found that the spurious "deeners" were three per cent. deficient -in silver content. It therefore appears to me that China’s revolution has been responsible for the time-honoured profession of counterfeiting in that country passing into the hands of simple thieves. Somehow I cannot believe that the discovery is a2 new one, unless it refers to the shortage of silver in the coinage, and it seems to me that the Australian police are merely reiterating to the public what clever fellows they are. The business has been going on for generations, and the traffic from China to Australia is not always by the direct route. Many an innocent traveller at Port Said and Colombo, after making purchases, chiefly rubbish, from native "box-wallers" has demanded British or Australian silver for change and often thereby absorbed a little of the counterfeiters’ output. Most of the imitative Australian currency, manufactured very likely in Canton, goes direct ‘to its projected destination and, being exact in weight, stamping and fineness- the traffic is a difficult one to stop. The intrinsic value of silver coinage is seldom worth more than a fraction of the face value, and recently the amount of silver in a two-shilling piece could be bought for a few pence. It therefore seems to me an amateurish sort of trick to endeavour to palm off short-weight ' and risk breaking a good connection. ‘I have seen barrels full of silver eoinage in China, reputed to have never seen its supposed country of origin, awaiting shipment to Austra- . ia and other countries, and I cannot believe that the Australian police have just heard about it. Now that a mild interest has been aroused in the business the Australian police should turn it to commercial account. A film showing all the ramifications of the industry, with a bright young

heroine awakening a Rip Vau Winkle policeman to the Chinaman’s wily ways, should prove a draw and advertise the police astuteness more than a cable message. z 2 i

ON looking at the names of lectures and their subjects for broadcast from the YA stations this week, I was impressed by the appropriateness or otherwise of some of them. For instance, I notice that Mr. Woodyear Smith is to give us seasonal notes, and Mr. H. F. Toogood is to speak on the economics of rural roads. Any Wellington motorist will say that any rural road is better than Lower Tinakori Road, but we shall have to hear what Mr. Toogood says before we can judge whether rural roads are too good or not. Then again, we are to have Dr. H. D. Broadhead continue his address upon social life of ancient Greece. Mr. J. L. Passmore’s name may be appropriate to his talk on motor regulations, and I shall be interested to learn whether he urges the Government to pass more regulations, or whether he urges the car owner to step on it. In the talk on the depression of the eighties-and after, Dr. W. Boroman may possibly tell us if our popular policy has been the right one, and every listener will be repaid for giving Dr. Boroman attention. & x 2 HEN speaking for Myr. Lloyd Ross, Mr. R. McIvor (4YA) gave some very interesting facts concerning our present day economic problem in connection with the fallacy that more money was needed. In this talk it was clearly shown that an expanded currency would not adjust the balance and rectify the evils that arise from an unscientific method of distribution. The contention held by some that the banks were not functioning by reason of withholding credit was shown to be absurd, and the instance of the German inflation was pointed to as an example that demonstrated that more money does not solve this very intri-

cate problem. The W.E.A. lectures | on this subject are always most illuminating, and it is a pity that static and fading so often spoil rece) tion at this distance. " . a % * ‘ VERY girl who loves chocolate. creams may have listened to Dr. Guy H. Scholefield (2YA) with sym~pathy for the whale, which man’s ruthlessness for ‘commercial gain threatens to exterminate. Every girl can show practical sympathy by refusing chocolate cream made from whale oil. The grubby little boy is not usually particular where his sweets originate, but seeing that by woman’s decree, the young white heron is allowed to live and great plumes no longer adorn their hats, the big sea mammals would have a longer purchase of life if the girls knew how much cream was made from whale oil. P~

HE Christchurch Community Singers have every cause to be elated at the success attending their sings and in being proud that their smaller city can at times beat Wellington’s takings. £33 cash collected, with articles for later sale and a donation of $40 worth of milk is a good haul for one day, and one may wonder if the success is not largely due to the Mayor’s attendance in the appeal for his fund. I think that that had a great deal to do with it. Of course it may be because the Mayor is an M.P., and to try this out, all community singers could request that their local M.P’s. should come along and see what they could do. I know Dan Foley draws more than one threepenny bit in Christchurch, and Wellington can be proud of that, but if Dan continues to respond so freely to encores he will have shortly to enlarge his repertoire. The real test. of Christchurch generosity will come when it has been combed as long as Wellington has by Owen Pritchard and Company, and if the Christchurch City Council starts to sell petrified and rather dear milk, that will be one item Wellington won’t have to consider in gaining her capital position. . % Bo ok EARNING to aviate by broadcast, under the wing of the Vacuum Oil Company from 2ZW was a novel and ‘good show, so the next morning 1 fed my benzine buggy with Plume. It’s not getting any Laurel kerosene -to drink though as the smell hangs round too long. t QGURELY the Wellington Automobile Club could supply its secretary with: better avian data than that which emanated from 2YA. Mr.

Sutherland said that the fastest known bird in flight was the "swift," which dould, move at the speed of 126 miles per hour. Really that speed is almost in backgear cothpared to the "oof bird.’ I don’t know the weight of a swift, but call it five pounds avoirdupois net. The feather it flys with is tare and in an empirical calculation may be disregarded. Using Mr. Sutherland’s formula ‘by adding half, that makes the swift change its position at the rate of 180 feet per second. Therefore its mass momentum equals, in top gear, 900 foot pounds per second. But everyone knows -how he has had the oof and suddenly it has disappeared, so quickly that the swift couldn’t have thought about moying. Returning to the foot-poundage of the swift, compare it with the Hataitai Traffic Tunnel oof, that hole that was holed almost wholly for motorists. The weight of oof leaving each day is forty pounds sterling, which is very much heavier than avojrdupois, I don’t know if forty pounds includes sinking fund, but anyhow sinking. fund, like feathers, doesn’t. weigh much, and as the differential in the calculus, it is only a little bit and can be discarded, so can feathers be in this calculation. That forty pounds is always moving away, but unlike the swift it always remains. Even if we take the time unit as one millionth of a second it is still going, yet stops in the same spot. Now just. imagine the oof bird changing its position, that equals forty million foot-pounds per second just for Hai-tiddly-hai-tai. I could give a lot more examples showing that the swift only crawls in comparison to the oof, but the calculations are somewhat inyolved. I’ve lost my book of logs, and these columns are too short for long-hand mathematics so we had better.get Mr. Will Yates to do them next "surprise item," although I think I have shown plainly that the Automobile Cluh’s informa: tion is faulty. = ts

AFTER the huge success of the Ottawa Conference at which, according to Mr. Bruce, Australia gave away nothing in return for favours (which will need to be made up for by some other Dominion), and the departure of the Irish. Free State delegates in high dudgeon, it.is just as well for us to know how we stand with all parties to the tentative agreements. Listeners were therefore fortunate in hearing Mr. J. T. Burrows (3YA) tell us something of the attitude of the South African Dutch toward the Britisher. Mr. Burrows witnessed the celebration of ‘the foundation of "flag day" in the Cape, and was able to see how much the Boer element had assimilated with the British, In recounting some of the incidents experienced that. day it was plain that New Zealanders were not. welcome either, and. so tense was the feeling that apprehension of bodily harm was not without reasonable cause. The Africander Dutch are not disposed to like anybody but themselves much, but if they did feel a fondness for anyone it would not be for a colonist who owed allegiance to their Motherland. The Boer shook off such a shackle at the dawn of enlightenment

and he ean let the belief that. this was the right thing to do even spoil his pleasure. That is why at Roto+ ria, when’ the Sotth Aftiean, footballets were hete, he dtank so heartily to, the toast "the downfall of the British Einpire." This attitude toward us is diffidalt to explain in view of. the fact that the. British have prevented the Blacks from exterminating the Dutch on more than. one occasion. I have heard that Rotary is going to fix it up, though, and consolidate. the dream of Gecil Rhodes, who visualised a nation of an admix-~ iure of British and Boer. Rhodes vras an-idealist and perhaps he never

gaw. the clodhopper nature of the Dutch women nor the satisfied ignorance of the Dutch men. a * % & ME. BURROWS spoke of the general altitude. of the southern end of the Dark Continent, and it makes me wonder how high the country was a few. million years ago. Geologists tell us that it. is the oldest. country on earth, and that while the. Himalaya mountains were being pushed ‘upwards South Africa was being blown away as dust. I wonder if the rise. of India’ and the dissipation of South Africa has anything to do with Mr. Ghandi’s. hatred of British institutions, for it was in Natal where he learnt mutch of it. He could not have very well absorbed it from the Boer as, having been born discoloured in complexion, the Boer would class him with the Kaffir, whom. he ‘believes the Creator made black and cotisequently inferior, therefore beyond the pale and not worthy of being associated with. Mr, Ghandi, however, didn’t live in the high part of South Africa, and spent most of | his African time in Durban, where |

the only really high part is the whale boiling-down factory. Mr. Burtows’s observations were undotibtedly very keen, but I can ‘assure him that. he was fortunate in having no need for his mosquito net, for 1 have never seen mosquitoes so large as those in South Africa. & * o I HAVE no doubt the appeal made by 2ZW for the formation of a radio ¢lub to enable that station to continue operations will meet with the immediate response that the situation warrants. Byery listener within range recognises that this popular B station has maintained a consistently high programme standard, in marked contrast to some of the B stations broadcasting in Australia, In making a direct appeal to listeners at the same time setting out the financial position, the proprietors have taken the wisest course, and appreciative listeners’ aid will not fail them. My own subscription is for the delightful chamber music which we receive from 2ZW and, in paying for that only, I know I am still in debt, but unfortunately complete redemption will have to wait’ for better times. Jolly good luck to 2ZW and its radio club! * a m WHAT wottld our radio orchestras do without grand opeta_ overtures and sélections? Were they to be suddenly deprived of this substantial section of their repertoire the loss to listeners would be appreciable. Take the case of that tuneful Gounod opera "Mireille," selections fom which the 1YA Chamber Orchestra is playing next Friday. Although the opera itself, like so many others, has fallen into something of oblivion, it enjoyed in its day quite a popular success. In 1864 it first saw the light in Paris, but as one writer puts it, "the action is probably too exelusively ‘Provencal’ to strike any responsive note in AngloSaxon audiences." Still the work successfully appeals in Paris, where it is performed at the Opera Comique frequently during the season. The opera tells of the course of true love

running far from smoothly and ending in the lovers’ union too late. Mirella and her sweetheart: Vincent find each'other and win consent to their wedding only for her to die in a mystic eestacy. Gounod, who has been accused of the "waltz complex," most certainly has written no better waltz song than "Oh, Messenger of Love," by which many people know the opera best. The tragic end of the whole story would hardly fbe guessed from the overture, which is full of, thoroughly bright and tuneful music. and has’ always been among the favourites of Gounod’s purely instrumental pieces. In the selection also an abundance of melodic material is drawn upon to build up an altogether charming orchestral number.