NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20244, 2 May 1929, Page 20

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The well-known Auckland mezzosoprano, Miss Mary MacCormick, who returned lately after gaining valuable experience abroad, including some tirno in the chorus of the Melba-Williamson Opera Company, will appear at IYA for the first time on" Friday of next week.

A. A. Milne's "The Dover Boad," will be presented at IYA on May 22 by the Auckland Comedy Players under Mr. J. F. Montaguo. The Little Theatre Society's production of this comedy a year or two ago was much enjoyed, and tho broadcast version will be welcomed.

It is expected that the Little Theatre Society will be able to undertake a further broadcast at IYA in a few weeks' time, but details have not yet been announced.

Commencing this evening, a fortnightly series of talks will be given during the IYA children's hour upon the choice of a vocation Tho first talk will be entitled, "The Church" and tho second "Medicine." Members of the actual professions and occupations will be the speakers.

No return of listeners' licences for 192930 lias so far been published, though a month has elapsed since the licence year closed. The number at March 31 was 44,609, made up as follows Auckland, 15,008; Wellington, 18,806; Canterbury, 8479; Otago, 3107. This makes North Island, 33,814; South Island, 11,585. Though the North Island, has about double the South Island's population the South Island has still some leeway to make up on a population basis.

The Dutch Parliament has voted over £6OOO as the first instalment toward the cost of erecting in the Dutch East Indies a powerful short-wave transmitter with a capacity of 600 k.w. It is hoped to establish regular communication with Europe. America, Australia and New Zealand. When complete the station will have cost about £BO,OOO.

What may be the highest structure ever erected is the contemplated " Radio Tower" at Barcelona. It is planned to put up a 400-metre radio tower for the forthcoming exhibition. This tower would thus be about 1312 ft. in height, rising some several hundred feet above the Eiffel Tower. According to the present design. the tower will have a circumference of 600 ft. and will include a hotel, theatre, museum and library as well as the radio transmitters for broadcast telephony and radio telegraphy.

A curious condition has been imposed upon soprano and tenor vocalists by station WRNY, New York. These artists are required to sing with orchestral accompaniment or, at any rate, with accompaniment other than that of the pianoforte, alone. The reason given is that a single voice, especially a soprano or tenor voice, when unaccompanied or accompanied only by a pianoforte, does not "come over" well, and is poorly reproduced from the loudspeaker. Bather than have tho station transmissions blamed for what the engineers consider to bo an inherent defect in the vendition, they have taken the somewhat drastic step mentioned above.

A Royal Commission lias been appointed in Ottawa for the purpose of considering the question of State-con-trolled and privately controlled broadcasting systems, and members of this Commission have arranged to tour certain countries, including Great Britain, France and the United States, in order to draw up a schedule of the advantages and disadvantages of these two methods. According to the latest information received it would appear that the Canadian authorities are inclined to favour a system on the lines of the 8.8.C. The president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the editor of the Ottawa Citizen are among the members of the commission.

There were very few breakdowns in the British broadcasting system last .year. From January 7 to December 29, tho total broadcasts were 64,467 hours, giving an average of sixty-two hours a week for each broadcasting station, or 3223 hours a year. Technical breakdowns amounted to .03 per cent. only, or fifty-eight minutes per station. This is roughly the same as for 1927. In 1926 the breakdown percentage was .07, a;id in 1925 it was .9 per cent. Sheffield won tho laurels as tho most reliable station, for ifc gave 3200 hours of programme -transmission in 1928, and suffered only .007 per cent, breakdowns. This works out at a loss of seven hours in every 100,000. 2LO's figure was .03. Daventrv, SXX, broadcast tho most hours, the total being 4173, or an average of 80 hours a week.

According to the London Sunday Despatch, the war against wireless pirates in Britain has been reduced now to a system, based on the idea of a series of raids carried out locally by the postal authorities, reinforced by the detective vans. A post office official recently said that the number of unlicensed listeners was exaggerated. " They will, in my opinion," he said, " get lower and fewer every year. Our methods of systematically combing out districts is having an effect. We receive reports from many sources about pirates," went on the official, " but often they are entirely unfounded; sometimes, as the result of a back-fence quarrel between neighbours, the post office gets a complaint from one of the parties that the other is working an unlicensed wireless set." However, there were well over one thousand prosecutions of people working unlicensed sets last year, which represents over three prosecuti6ns a iflajf all the year round.