Navigation for Sounds Historical

8:09 Today In New Zealand History - 2 November 1877, death of poet Alfred Domett

8:14 Artist: Wild Geese (Brendan Connor, Mike Dew, Neil Frances, Mick Ludden, Paul Turner, Kenny Walker)

Song: Ridge of Messines
Composer: Frances
Album: Promises to Keep
Label; Private 1657 CD 5'09"

Wild Geese a Wairarapa group. The song Ridge of Messines was written by Neil Frances and is based on his grandfather, Albert Summers, who trained at Featherston and saw his first action in the field with the Wellington Infantry Regiment at Messines in June 1917.

8:19 Homework

A short essay (maybe about 200 or 300 words) on recollections of your favourite toys of childhood - why you liked them and what happened to them!!

8:20 Skyways: The Story of New Zealand Flight Part 2. A studio-based documentary from about 1947.

1914 the first airmail was carried but it was not until 1920 that George Bolt carried the first official airmail.

Some of the early commercial air service pioneers are listed, including Bert Mercer who flew from Christchurch to the West Coast. More aerodromes were built around the country, using new technology such as bulldozers. Actuality of Hon. Robert Semple, Minister of Public Works, talking building aerodromes and other public projects.

In 1945 air services were nationalised under the National Airways Corporation. The development of the New Zealand Air Force. Over 300 New Zealanders served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I but little was done by the government after the war to develop an air arm. However with World War II change came. The Air Cadet Corps was organised and the Women's Auxiliary Air Corps was set up.

8:37 Artist: The Gang Show

Song: On the Crest of a Wave
Composer: Reader
|Album: n/s
Label n/s 3'01'

The Gang Show format was created by Ralph Reader, the original producer, who wrote material including the signature tune, On the Crest of a Wave.

8:41 During a visit to New Zealand in 1966 Barnes Wallis talks about the "bouncing bomb" he invented for the RAF's "Dambuster" raids on German dams on the Ruhr river during WWII

Barnes Wallis also mentions that he thinks that new swept wing aircraft that could fly from England to New Zealand in just a couple of hours, are possibly only 10 years away. No funds were made available and Wallis's design ideas were passed over in the United Kingdom in favour of the BAC TSR-2 (on which one of Wallis's sons worked) and Concorde. Wallis was quite critical of both the TSR-2 and Concorde, stating that a swing-wing design would be more appropriate. In the mid-1960s, TSR-2 was scrapped in favour of the American F-11 - which had swing wings based on Wallis's work which the Americans had received - although this order was also subsequently cancelled. Barnes Wallis died in in 1979.

8:53 War Report 14 November 2

The Horses. While the public supplied funds for motorcars and motorcycles to be bought for the Main Body - and many people donated their bicycles (there was a New Zealand cyclists unit in France) - the army relied on horses for transport. Percy Lowndes and another veteran recall the shipping of the horse with the Main Body and an extract from the diary of Colonel Charles Reakes describes the sad situation at the end of the war: "Before the home-coming from Egypt, there was many a sad parting between man and horse - mates in the hard years of war. The ill-usage of some horses that had been sold to callous Egyptians had convinced the New Zealanders that a merciful death was a better fate for a faithful horse than bondage to a pitiless taskmaster, and numbers, for which kind owners were not available, were given a painless death."

Music extracts:

Artist: Arthur Boyton
Song: Are We Downhearted?
Composer: n/s
Album: Oh, It's a Lovely War Vol 2
Label: CD41 486309

Artist: Stanley Kirby
Song: We Didn't Want to Fight
Composer: n/s
Album: Oh, It's a Lovely War Vol 2
Label: CD41 486309 6'39"

9:00 News

9:05 As I Remember

To a Crib from a Tent by Roy Walker of Auckland read by Colin Feslier 3'48"

9:10 Artist: Ray Columbus

Song: Till We Kissed
Composer: Man/Weill
Album: Ray Columbus and the Invaders
Label: Ascension 110282 3'21"

"Till We Kissed had been recorded by a number of artists. It turned out to be Ray Columbus and the Invaders' biggest New Zealand hit, selling over 50,000 copies in 1965..On November 24, 1965 Till We Kissed won the first Loxene Golden Disc Award."

9:14 Homework

A short essay (maybe about 200 or 300 words on recollections of your favourite toys of childhood - why you liked them and what happened to them!!

9:15 A memorial wall was unveiled in Wellington last month to commemorate Coast Watchers who were executed in the Pacific during the Second World War

On October 15th 1942, 17 New Zealanders, ten soldiers and seven Post and Telegraph radio operators were rounded up by the Japanese in the Northern Gilbert Islands, which is now Kiribati, and killed. Six other civilians were executed.

The programme was compiled by Radio New Zealand's Veterans' Affairs Reporter, Andrew McRae

9:32 Artist: Bridge City Jazzmen

Song: Muskrat Ramble
Composer: Kid Ory, written 1926
Album: From NZBC show in early 1960s
Label n/a 2'58"

The Bridge City Jazzmen was formed in 1962 to play at the Artist, a nightspot in downtown Auckland. The original line up was Paul Harrop - trumpet, Tony Ashby - clarinet, Peter Rex - trombone, John Wilcox - piano/banjo, Nick Wilcox - bass and Bill East - drums. Due to players' other commitments, the personnel changed in 1963 with Don Bruce - trumpet/vocals, Ray Pilkington - clarinet, Neil McGough trombone, John Wilcox - piano, Nick Wilcox - bass and Bruce King on drums...

9:36 Edwardian New Zealand. Part One.

Ena Ryan was born in Wellington in 1908 and developed a sharp eye for the quaintness and absurdities of the thriving social class system and the restricted life led by middle and upper class women. She recalls Kelburn as a hotbed of snobbery with a rigorous class system. There was an outcry when workers' dwellings were built near Moana Road. She recalls what Wellington stores were like at the time; travelling hawkers selling rabbits, crayfish and whitebait and fruit barrows along Lambton Quay. Bakers and other tradespeople would call at the house to sell goods. Roles for women in the workplace were very limited.

9:45 Women in World War One

Professor Barbara Brookes of Otago University is researching the work of women during WW1. She discusses some of the early findings of her delving into the old records. 12'06"