it behind. It took radio and television to help it find the words and the ways of talking, so that Welshmen are now able to use it for everything. While I was in Wales I saw and heard on TV alone (but could not understand alas) features on industrial relations and a strike, slum clearance, church architecture, welfare work, politics, teenage problems, and Christmas shopping. I sat through studio games, interviews, listened and looked at Eisteddfod winners, and innumerable advertisements. And of course I could have (if I had understood) kept up with local and world events and learnt about the weather. Never an English word spoken, and only 114 miles from London. In New Zealand we have a great number of small broadcasting stations and so we have a golden opportunity to make one, say IZC Rotorua, a Maori language station, with everything except the recorded artists using Maori as the spoken word. Expense? Heavy at first compared to other local stations. The station would need a staff of translators, typists of Maori, Maori announcers, programme producers able to produce in Maori, able to improvise, experiment, develop new ideas and unearth new talent; it would need technicians able to understand Maori or able to put up with everything being done in Maori, and roving reporters out at important occasions, both Maori and national, giving special coverage for Maori listeners. And there is the problem of convincing advertisers that advertisements in Maori are not useless and are worth paying the extra they will at first cost to produce. The quality? Who knows? Surely the talent is there. We know we have the musicians and singers already. The effect? Pride in our other New Zealand language. Assistance to all who are learning Maori. A healthy development of the language, no longer just a language of the marae
ONLY £1 FOR A 3 YEARS' SUBSCRIPTION TO TE AO HOU Send with your name and address to The Editor, P.O. Box 2390, Wellington (See contents page for overseas rates).
and the old people. I look forward to the day when I tune in to my favourite station and hear the announcer say, ‘Kei te whakarongo koe i nga Pitara e waiata ana i te waiata nei, “A Hard Day's Night”.' LLEWELLYN RICHARDS (Te Kaha) Mervyn McLean's Study of Maori Music The Editor, Te Ao Hou. I feel deeply touched at the letters which have appeared on the above subject and I am profoundly grateful to the writers. I think that I should explain to them why I have acted as I have done. Many people, perhaps even most, will believe as these writers do, that to accept payment for my transcriptions and articles would be no more than fair return for the work have put into them. I am quite sure however that others would say, ‘There you are; just as I thought; he's making money out of our songs.’ Most of us know that this sort of thinking is wrong, but mistaken or not it was, without any doubt at all, the greatest single barrier encountered by me when I began recording Maori songs. Again and again the question was raised and always I gave the unqualified assurance that I would not ‘sell the songs for money’. Nearly all of the singers accepted this and recorded their songs; and posterity will be grateful to them for doing so. I know quite well that payment for the transcriptions would be payment for my own work and not for the songs themselves. But some of the people whose songs I have recorded, and many others whose songs I would like to record, would not see it this way. My own very strong conviction is that mistaken' as these people may be, I must respect their wishes. I believe also that many things in life are more important than money and for me personally it will mean much more to be able to carry on with the work of preserving and studying Maori music, than to accept a few pounds now that might create difficulties later. So to Amy Hill, Hirona Wikiriwhi, Tahi Tait and other well-wishers who may feel as they do. I extend my warmest thanks for their efforts and the hope that they will see now that I could not act otherwise. MERVYN McLEAN (Invercargill)
Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.
By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.
Your session has expired.