NEXT WEEK'S EVENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20098, 8 November 1928, Page 18

NEXT WEEK'S EVENTS.

SCHUBERT CENTENARY.

The following are features of the programmes at IYA next week: — Sunday.—Relays of morning Armistice T)ay service from St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, and of evening service from tho Church of Christ, West Street. Tuesday.—Schubert centenary programme. Wednesday.—Flection results. Thursday.—Mr. Barry Coney's quartette; instrumental trio. Friday.—Madame Towscv's quartette; one-act comedy bv tho Auckland Comedy Players; orchestia. Saturday. rniific Sunday.—Relay from I'itt Street Methodist Chinch; gramophone lecturerecital. On Thursday 2YA, Wellington, will relay a concert performance of "Tho Bohemian Girl" (Balfe), by the Orpheus .Musical Society, assisted by the 2\ A oi chest ra. The first act of "The Vagabond King" will bo relayed by 21' C, Sydney, next Friday. Federal election results will be given out on Saturday week. Old war-time songs will be presented at 4QG, Brisbane, next Friday. ELECTION BROADCAST. ARRANGEMENTS AT IYA. A full service of election results will bo •provided by IYA on Wednesday evening in co-operation with the New Zealand Kbkai.d. Tho station will be on the air until tho last returns are received. It is probable that descriptions of scenes in tho city and the reception of the news by the crowds will also be broadcast. Any vacant tijiio will be filled in with gramophone records from the studio. Similar transmissions will bo made by the three southern stations. FINANCES OK THE li.li.C. REVENUE OVER £BOO,OOO. Some details of tho finances of the British Broadcasting Corporation are given in the second issue of that body's annual handbook. It is pointed out that one of tlio most striking differences between tho 8.8.C. and an ordinary corporation is that it has no capital in the ordinary sense. Another is that it is not, a profit-earning concern; tlio whole of its revenue is devoted to the service. Again, its revenue) is not received direct from the public it serves and does not increase in proportion to

tlin development of the service. The hulk of the 8.8.C.'s income comes from the Post Office. Of all licenco fees collected, 12J per cent, is retained by the Post Office to cover cnsts of collection and administration. Then in respect of the first million licences issued, the Treasury retains 11 further 10 per cent.; in respect of the second million, 20 per cent.: of the third, 30 per cent.; of anything over three millions, 40 per cent. The effect of the basis of calculation is indicated in a table relating to the financial year ended March 31, 1028. Tho actual division of licence fees collected during the year is shown as follows: Retained by Post Oll'u'c. 11141,875; retained bv Treasurv, 11192.166: paid to 8.P..C., £800,959; 'total, £1,135.000. The revenue account for the year ended December 31, 1927. shows among the items on tho expenditure side:— Programmes, etc. (including costs of artists, orchestras, news, royalties, performing rights and simultaneous broadcast telephone system, and salaries of programme staff), £487.728; maintenance of plant, power, salaries and expenses ot engineering staff, development and research, «:tc., £131,036. The balance, being the net revenue for the year, was £128,336. The income is shown to be £901,626, made up as follows:—Licence income, £800,959; net revenue from publications, £93,686: and interest and sundry receipts, £6980. The net revenue for the year has been appropriated as to £IOO,OOO to capital expenditure to be incurred in the construction and equipment of regional stations. TALKING WITH AIRMEN. CROYDON WONDER-TOWER. A good word picture of tho Croydon aircraft control station 011 an ordinary busy afternoon is given by a special correspondent of the London Daily Mail. Ho writes : "Quelle est ma position, s'il vous plait?" ("Where am I, please?") It was in the new control tower of tho Croydon aerodrome, tho "brain" of Europe's airways, when I heard these words spoken apparently by someone in the tower who wished everybody there to hear him. "Who was that speaking?" J asked Captain Jeffs, tho duty officer at that moment in command of the tower. When ho was free Captain Jeffs turned to mo and said, "Tho voice you heard was that of a French airman flying above the Channel. Ho was above clouds and heneath him he could see nothing but an expanse of what looked like cotton wool. Wo were .able to tell him exactly where he was within 75 seconds.

"When he was speaking to us by wireless his voice was reported by a loud speaker and this instrument in front of the senior wireless operator, known as a radio-goniometer, immediately gave us his approximate position off the English coast.

"After asking the French pilot to keep on talking in us for half a minute wo spoke to the Pulhurn (Norfolk) and Lyrnpne (Kent) stations, who had also heard tho pilot's message. They were almost immediately able to tell "us the position of the pilot in relation to their stations. I then went to this large map which, as you see, has strings attached to the spots marked I'ulham, I.ympno and Croydon. Having placed the I'ulham and Lyrnpne strings in position, according to their bearings, I put the Croydon string in position, according to our bearing. Where the strings inter socted was the spot, and within 75 seconds we spoke to the Frenchman and said. 'You arc 12 miles due south of Hcachy Head'."

I heard other strange voices. There was a Belgian pilot, also speaking from a spot near the Knglish coast ; there was a voice corning from Holland, and then thero came a message from a pilot a few thousand feet above fierniany.

Xlu! dutv officer was continually pick inpr up weatlipr reports from all parts of Europe. Evei / important station sends by wireless hourlv weather reports uiving the direction and velocity of the wind, the amount of cloud and any other details that would be helpful io the pilots. ' In addition to the map used for finding tlio whereabouts of a machine there is a magnetic steel chart—an enormous map of the British Isles and Europe, painted on a steel plate, with all llio aerodromes marked conspicuously. )n this map are little movable plates that look like beetles, each one representing by its colour and letters an aeroplane that is in flight, r! e<l is British, yellow I'rench, black (lerman. blue Melgiau, tfill Dutch and there are green and white colours for privately-owned machines. A machine from Central Europe humid tin London has the different stages of its journey recorded on this chart.