EMPIRE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 116, 19 May 1933, Page 3

EMPIRE DAY.

NOVEL celebration. "SOUTHERN SEA" BROADCAST. UNKING THE DOMINIONS. By far the most ambitious scheme for an jnter-Dcminion broadcast yet arranged south of the line has been planned for Wednesday next, May 21, bv the New South Wales branch of the jfoval Empire Society in co-operation 'with the Australian and New Zealand Broadcasting Boards and Amalgamated Wireless. Commercial radio-telephone channels and important short-wave broadcasting stations will serve as links to connect the southern Dominions and the numerous British outposts in the p ac ific, and also to link up Britain and Canada, from which greetings will come tn those attending official Empire Day dinners in New Zealand and Australia. This "Southern Sea" broadcast will demonstrate the universality of wireless telephony, for from Sydney all important broadcasting centres in Australia, v e w Zealand, Fiji and lonely Pacific Islands, such as Nauru will be called, and listeners over the. whole area will hear both the summons and the reply. Then Sir Hugh Deiiison, presiding at the Empire Day dinner in Sydney, will call the chairman of the similar function tt t Christchurch to propose the health of the King, which will be drunk simultaneously at many a dinner throughout the South Seas.' There> will follow son crs, instrumental music and toasts, with brief responses by Sir Isaac Isaacs, Governor-General of Australia, Lord Bledisloe, Governor-General of New Zealand, H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, Earl Jellicoe, the rtt. Hon. J. H. Whitley, chairman of the 8.8.C., and other personages throughout the Empire. The London-Australia radio-telephone servico will bring the voices of the British speakers clearly to Sydney, whence they will be carried by further radiophone systems or Amalgamated Wireless services to all listeners over the South racific. The musical portion of this ambitious effort will be supplied by the Australian Broadcasting Commission's orchestra (00 instrumentalists), and its choir, and the vocal solos for the dinner will be. sung by Miss Lilian Gibson, contralto, and Mr. Alfred Cunningi ham, baritone, who is well known in New Zealand.

The actual broadcast will commence from Sydney with the National Anthem at 0.30 p.m. New Zealand time, and will occupy 2 hours 40 minutes. Such a bi<* undertaking; with the co-operation of°so many stations and the participation of so many personages, has taken much organisation, and will require most careful timing, as is indicated by the exactness of the complete schedule. As all the New Zealand stations will be linked up for reception and transmission of this "Empire Day on the Air" commemoration, listeners throughout this Dominion should have no difficulty in hearing every word that is uttered or received in Sydney.