New Zealand Ballads

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29054, 17 November 1959, Page 18

New Zealand Ballads

NEW ZEALAND BALLADS: “Taumata . . ~” "Inter-Island Steamer-Express,” “Gumdigger,” “Down the Hall on Saturday Night,” written and sung by Peter Cape with Don Toms (guitarist), Kiwi EA26 (7in). “Young Kiwi," “Sheep Cocky” (Rogers), “Taumarunui,” “Bullocky” (Cape) sung by Pat Rogers. Kiwi EA2S (7in). “Echoes of Maoriland,” sung by the Amorangi Boys of Rotorua, with Leah Clubb. Kiwi EA27 (7in).

Mr Cape’s unpretentious ballads —the temptation to call them folk songs has wisely been avoided—about contemporary New Zealand life recall Frank Sargeson’s accounts of New Zealand life in the thirties. There is the same accurate observation of . manners, morals and customs, a saltiness and a lack of inhibitions that will slightly shock native New Zealanders as they hear their own speech, thoughts and behaviour echoed in Mr Cape’s witty verses, which are sung with few pretensions. The most enjoyable is “Saturday Night,” a descriptive ballad in New Zealand vernacular of the Saturday night "hop” that takes place in hundreds of New Zealand country halls each week. “Inter-Island Steamer Express” is a “calypso” containing some references to this service that past passengers will appreciate, and “Taumata . . .” etc., tells about the famous Hawke’s Bay place name said to be a letter longer than the more famous Welsh place name. Pat Rogers gives a more polished performance of two more of Mr Cape’s ballads, but two of his own, ‘•Young Kiwi” and “Sheep

Cocky,” do not have the same appeal. Mr Cape, an Anglican minister, who is in charge of religious broadcasts in the Dominion, has learnt a lot about New Zealand life in a chequered career as farmhand teacher, postman, journalist and labourer, and he has recaptured much of his experience in these ballads. There is, however, a tendency to overdo the vernacular so that It becomes a caricature rather than a copy of New Zealand speech. The Amorangi Boys copy, not very competently, Hawaiian techniques in a group of songs by Sam Freedman, of Wellington. Leah Clubb (soprano) also helps.