New Landmark For Auckland City

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 8, 1 September 1933, Page 22

New Landmark For Auckland City

1YA’s New Studio Building Should be Under Way ShortlyAborigine Most Interes ting of Living PeoplesCairo’s "Prosperity Week."

ORK on the new 1YA studio building at the top of Shortland Street will be well in hand before the end of the year. The four-story building on its commanding site in the heart.of the city should be taking shape as one of Auckland’s architectural features by the time pohutukawas are in bloom again. The architects’ draft plans have been submitted to the head office of the Broadcasting Board in Welling: ton, and these have now been returne4 to the architects with instructions to proceed with the work. It should be no great time, therefore, before tenders for the work are being called. * * = "RESERVED TIMH" in the pyro gramme list often means records, but 1YA sprang a pleasant surprise last Monday when Mr. S. W. M. Stilling, New Zealand representative of the Australian Travel League, had a variety of interesting things to say about the Australian aborigines. The prevailing idea that the blacks are little above the animel level, the speaker shot to tatters. Possibly 20,000 years ago they found their way to Australia from the North, and since they had been out of the stream of evolution, There on the drying continent these people had developed their own culture, and scientists regarded them as the most interesting of living peoples, since in contemporary times they exemplified the life of our own distant ancestors. That their mental powers were not so poor aS was sometimes stated, was proved by the fact that pure-blooded aborigines had qualified as lawyers, doctors and clergymen. The speaker’s descriptions of the weapons of the blacks, their mode of life and tribal customs, were most interesting. . ’ those of us of the Palestine Force, who, in the desert had accumulated 6 months’ pay, who caught a train in Palestine in the late afternoon and came to the city to scatter our pay in one hectic "Prosperity Week," Cairo was one of the most fascinating of

cities, said Mr. L, W. Delph, from 1YA, on Friday. He spoke of its million people of all races of the Hast, of the bazaars, each tunnel of shops holding its separate trade, of the infinite variety of the life of the streets, and the wonder of the Pyramids, "The Nile is Hgypt, and the real Egypt never changes," he said, in conclusion. The fellaheen still use ploughs of wood and

stone-studded harrows-as they did in the days of the Pharaohs. % % * HH Rey. W. Jellie’s talks on "Contemporary Poetry" in the Wednesday W.H.A. sessions from 1YA form an interesting survey of the poetry of various lands to-day. The first talk dealt with the frenzied experiments in verse in the United States, that seemed to be far more prose than verse. The second talk, last Wednesday, was concerned with the poetry of Scotland. Scottish nationalism is a new and rising force demanding a Scottish Parliament and the revival of Scots speech and ‘poetry. There are many sweet

singers among the younger Scots quoted by Mr. Jellie. The influence of the stern Scottish land, with its "Fields red with sorrel and stony" with "A few wind-twisted trees" is evident. The new nationalism finds expression in: "They taxed ye... They’ve strippit puir auld Scotland bare, . . An’ spent the siller in the Sooth." However, there is nothing disloyal in the movement. As the speaker said: "It is the sort of nationalism to which we can all wish yod-speed." a * * HOP2 for a solution of our present troubles is to be found in the culmination of "the greatest fight in history," that for the abolition of slavery, declared the Rey. W. Lawson Marsh from 1YA last Wednesday. ‘"‘No obstacles can hold back a righteous passion for justice," he declared. "If all the crimes man has committed were added together they would not exceed the crimes of the slave traffic," said Lord Palmerston. ~*That Britain was among the guiltiest was shown by the fact that the largest slave deal on record was put through by a British sovereign-Queen Anne. She. undertook to supply 300,000 slaves for the King of Spain’s dominions, taking onefourth of the profits herself, while the King of Spain took the same percentage and the shareholders the rest. . * * x UNCLB TOM, of 1ZR, told an interesting story of early Auckland during his introduction to his Celebrity Hour on Sunday evening. Saying that Malcolm McHacharn, the bass of "Wiotsam and Jetsam," would sing Jude’s "Mighty Deep," the announcer mentioned that Jude, celebrated London organist, once toured the colony, taking his own organ with him. He was billed to appear in the old City Hall and the speaker went on the opening night with his father, who had heard Jude play in London, However, there were no more than a score of people in the audience and the manager returned the admission money and later cancelled the entire season. On the Sunday following Jude was advertised to play the organ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the morning and at Pitt Street Methodist Church in the evening. There were large congregations and on the succeed-

ing Sunday, when Jude again played in these churches, hundreds of people were turned away. Then, on Monday, anew Jude season was announced for: the City Hall, and for a week the build-, ing was packed. The first number played was Jude’s own "Mighty Deep,"

LURE OF THE EAST Special |YA Feature by Walter Impett

The mysticism and lure of the East can be felt in almost all the music of Sir Granville Bantock who has given to musical literature many of the finest concert songs of the present. century. Though now seldom free from the academic life of the University of Birmingham, the impressions of earlier days spent in India have persisted, and the songs of Bantock are reminiscent of exotic crowds and colours, Such is the background that inspired the miost enchanting of Bantock’s songs which include "The Lament of Isis," "The Feast of Lanterns,’"’ ‘""The Song of the Palanquin Bearers" and countless others arranged for all voices. Recently, during a viist to England, Mr. Walter Impett, the well known Auckland musician, spent many hours in the company of Granville Bantock, obtaining a wealth of information concerning his compositions and how they came to be written, The eventful career of ‘this famous British composer is to be traced:‘by Mr. Impett in an "‘illustrated talk’"" from 1YA on Friday, September 8. Miss Mina Caldow, contralto, and Mr. Frank Sutherland; baritone, have been engaged for the occasion.