‘Open Country’ nostalgia

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 16

‘Open Country’ nostalgia

Jim Henderson’s Open Country. By Jim Henderson. Heinemann, 1982. 124 pp. Illustrations. $17.95.

A musterer’s whistle, clear and shrill, followed by the announcement, “Open Country: People and Places Out of Town.. Many will remember the introduction to Jim Henderson's well-loved weekly radio session! “Open Country,” which, from 1961 until 1975, brought stories about

country life, as seen by country people, into the homes of all who listened. The scripts were by contributors from all parts of New Zealand, who told simply of their own experiences and feelings about a way of life which is passing now, leaving us with a deep sense of nostalgia. This book selects the cream of 14 years of radio broadcasts — 34 stories in all, including Jim Henderson’s own story of “Open Country," in which he pays tribute to the many people who worked with him on the programme. The rest cover a wide range of people, places and events. All are memorable, in particular Archdeacon James Young's “One More River to Cross to the Wedding," in which he recalls conducting a marriage service from one side of a flooded river while the bride and groom called their responses from the opposite bank, crossing being impossible. All the liquid refreshments for the wedding were' on the Archdeacon’s side of the river. “Courteously, we offered to try and float a bottle or two across to them. But, of course, the only bottle that will float is an empty one.” Jim Henderson has. not made the mistake of overloading this volume with too much material. There is just enough to make it full and pleasant to read. Illustrated with excellent drawings by Marydene Porter, and Geoff Moon's beautiful colour photographs, it is a fitting finale to 14 years of "Open Country.” All that is missing, of course, is the musterer’s whistle. - H. F. Madill.