THE NEW CONTROL

Evening Star, Issue 20985, 26 December 1931, Page 4

THE NEW CONTROL

will. SOUTH ISLAND BE NEGLECTED? The Broadcasting Board, consisting of Mr H. D. Vickery (Wellington, chairman), Mr G. R. Hutchinson (Auckland), and Mr L. R. C. Macfarlane (Culverden), is already in conference completing arrangements to assume control of the service in New Zealand on January 1. The members will have their time fully occupied for the next few months, as they arc confronted with countless problems affecting the future policy of the dominion. It is understood that applications for staff positions have been considered, and practically all members of the Broadcasting Company’s present staff have been notified that their services will be retained. In this respect the broadcasting service will not differ from that already in existence. The Broadcasting Act provides for a board of three members, the remuneration of the chairman to be £650 a year and that of the other two members £350 each. The first chairman is appointed for a period not exceeding five years, and subsequent chairmen for a period not exceeding three years, while the other members are appointed for periods not exceeding four and three years respectively. Subsequent appointments will be for three years, and all members are eligible for reappointment. Mr Vickery has been appointed for four years, and the other two for a term of two years.

The Advisory Council, the personnel of which has yet to be decided, will consist Of'fxye members from the North Island and three from the South, and ■will act in a purely advisory capacity. The council will be q. valuable adjunct, presumably of greater,, value to the North Island than to the South, in view of the fact that the membership will be greater in the north than in this part of the dominion, and will therefore have a greater say in the matter of advancing suggestions. Following in the steps of the company, the new control, it seems, would prefer to concentrate more on the north than on the south, on the ground evidently that the island which furnishes the smaller number of licenses should have the least attention.

Everyone is anxious to get on good terms with and to help the board, which will undoubtedly exploit every avenue to give listeners the best entertainment. We cannot look for . any radical changes in broadcasting, it is said, for some time until the board has coped with the many details connected with the change-over. It is sincerely, to be hoped that the board will provide n co-ordinated service, and that all stations will receive the same amount of attention and be developed at the same time; not one station in the north to be concentrated upon at the expense of the other three. Provided the four stations are treated as being of equal value, that the two in- the South Island are not neglected until the last minute, that the programmes are of a satisfying nature, and finally that the broadcasting hours are reasonably long, listeners should have little complaint. The.following few details of the three men appointed to the board appeared in the ‘ Evening Post ’: —

The chairman of the hoard, Mr H. D. Vickery, has been practising as a public accountant in Wellington for the past-twenty-two years. For a number of years he has acted as an examiner in accountancy subjects for the University of New Zealand. He is connected with a number of companies, including Metters (N.Z.) Ltd.. B. L. Hart and Co. Ltd., and the Paparoa Coal Co. Ltd. Mr Vickery acted for the Government on the committee for the revision of the Companies Act. For ten years lie was secretary for the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and he was the first secretary of the Now Zealand Associated Chambers of Commerce. Last April Mr Vickery was appointed a member of the Earthquake Adjustment Court.

Mr G. R. Hutchinson, 0.8. E., was born in Liverpool. He came to the dominion at nine years of age and settled in Auckland. He was educated in the public schools in Auckland. He served in the Great War from the outbreak of hostilities . until after the signing of the Armistice, being mentioned in dispatches on three occasions. He held the rank of major in the A.S.C., and served in Egypt, France, Belgium, and Palestine. Ho has been a member of the Auckland Harbour Board for twenty years, and at present is chairman of that body. He also serves on the Auckland City Council for four years, and was chairman of the Tramways, Water, and Electric Committees. At the present time he is a member and deputy-chairman of the Auckland Transport Board, deputychairman of the Kaipara Dairy Company, managing director of Hutchinson (Wholesale) Ltd., chairman of directors of Hutchinson Bros. Ltd., controlling a chain of stores in the Auckland Province. director of Bycrofts Ltd., biscuit manufacturers and flour millers, director of the Union Oil Soap and Candle Co. Ltd. He is the owner of a stud farm of Jersey cattle and Southdown sheep in the Helensville district. Ho is keenly interested in kennel clubs, poultry clubs, and rifle clubs, and is vice-patron of the Auckland Regatta. Mr L. R- C. Macfnrlnne, who is fanning on his own account at Culverden, was born in Canterbury. He was educated at the Otago . Boys’ High School and Lincoln Agricultural College. He served in the Great War with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, and was at Gallipoli and Palestine for three „tv] a-half vears. He hold the rank Of temporary major and was awarded mo VJ C He is president of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, and is also preshlent of the .New Zealand Royal Agricultural Society, and in addition is director of several private companies. He is the author, of ‘ Farming Faults, Facts, and Fancies. He is a keen sportsman and is interested ja horse racing.