| Notes |
- The following piece of writing had this postscript:
"This script was broadcast from 2YA over all stations during the morning when New Broadcasting House, Wellington was opened. I recorded it previously in 1YA Studio. It received favourable comment in the 'Listener'
Read for taping 1YA, Aug. 13th 1963
Broadcast through 2YA Sept. 1963"
(I found it ironic - or poignant - that I was typing this onto the computer with the knowledge that this year (1997) "New Broadcasting House" is scheduled for demolition to make room for more Parliamentary offices.)
BACK COUNTRY NEWS
by
DOROTHY BARKER
Now I watch eagerly for the postman each morning and if he is late, I think I am harshly treated.
What a contrast to the mails that came twice a week to our home in the back-blocks fifty years ago on horse-back and carried in big saddle bags.
What a mail it was! Papers, letters, bills, parcels. The papers - always a point of consideration if you should read the last-dated first, or the first-dated lats! Mail day was a big event.
Then came the telephone. The P & T would erect the line a certain distance from the township, provided the settlers would put up and maintain the remainder. This often meant the farmer had to put up some miles of line over rough bush-clad country. They cut the poles for it from the fallen trees in the bush. What excitement when at last the phone was really installed in the house. That large ungainly bow-type phone was really more wonderful to us than the latest automatic one nowadays. It was, of course, a party-line with six or seven subscribers - some of them were definitely "chatty". The men considered the phone should be theirs at night. often two of them would take possession for half an hour or longer, while they queried "Had Bob seen that roan shorthorn cow that was missing?" or "Why were there wild bullocks of Tom's on Bob's, a place where they had no right to be?"
Of course we women were not exactly dumb, while we compared how many teeth our respective babies had, or told how we had found the old black hen "Broody" under a log, and had set her there.
The phone was really indispensable, especially in case of sudden illness when we could 'ring up' the doctor in the township some miles away. Sometimes the line would go dead and one of the farmers had to ride and climb through the bush to find the fault. Often a bullock had rubbed the line off a pole and earthed it.
Then whispers reached us of radio. At first the wonders told seemed too marvellous to be true. However, first one and then another ventured to get a set.
Our first battery set was an American one, and you'll find it hard to realise the great thrill when first we got news and music from 2YA. We received that station better than 1YA, in the King Country.
To run the radio, we used a 'wet' A batrtery, two 45 dry B batteries and a small C battery. Woe betide if any battery became 'flat' but some excuse could always be found to go the long trip to the township to get a new one.
The announcers from 2YA, Mr John Ball and Mr Clive Drummond were soon valued members of our household, and the radio became of paramount importance in our daily life. The news was, of course, a 'must' with our infrequent mail service: it was wonderful to hear the very latest news each day. The weather report - great things depended on that: whether or not the sheep should be mustered or that fence at the back of the farm could be mended, given the promise of a fine day. Mr Clive Drummond's closing down "Goodnight all, goodnight all" from 2YA sounded so friendly on that lonely farm. Just the right touch of informality to bring him almost into our home.
I had a family of seven; to those old enough, the children's session was a great delight. 'Aunt Molly' of 2YA was a real friend and what a very great thrill when a child had its birthday called over the air. One 'Uncle' - his name has exc aped me - brought the birthday presents in a plane. At least the shirring of a plane could be heard as the child was directed to "look under the front step for a parcel". There would be shrieks of delight and a rush to find the parcel and a look up to see if there really, really was a plane, so real had the broadcast been. For, of course, a real plane was never heard or seen in that part of the country.
Often the children's session ended with a "Merrily we'll roll along, roll along from 2YA" set to a well-known old tune, and I would hear it drowsily hummed as the children went off to sleep.
Then came the napier earthquake. I was hanging clothes out when suddenly the ground seemed to tilt up, children cried, horses galloped round in the paddock, and thewater tanks outside the house and woolshed splashed their contents over the top. I realised that if the Quake was so unpleasant with us, it must be very severe further south. My first thought was 2YA - would it tell where the earthquake was?
Presently, news came over that Napier had experienced a terrible earthquake, much damage had been done and communications were out. Then a ring on the phone from a distant neighbour whose relations lived on Bluff Hill. Had I heard anything on the radio? After a whilenews from Napier began to come through, then news of loss of life and names of some of the victims. A great relief when we heard our friends on Bluff Hill were safe, and sympathy for all those who had suffered so much.
Truly 2YA had again proved its value as a friend.
On another day and night, the magic of Kingsford-Smith's flight in the "Suthern Cross" over the Pacific was ours - the faint morse signals picked up and relayed by 2YA. Then, when he flew the Tasman, we just sat up all night until he reached Christchurch safely. Again, we heard Admiral Byrd speak after his return from the South Pole.
So much more we heard on a winter's night with a big log fire: news, music and talks came right into our rooms on that isolated backblock farm.
We erected an 80 foot vertical aerial, dropped from a wire across (slung) a gulley from the tops of two ridges. We found an old piece of copper, sunk it in the ground, then soldered several earths to it. A piece of iron pipe down the centre kept the earth moist. Our results were surprising: stations from USA and Australia became quite an accepted thing, and soon our wall was decorated with QGE cards recevied in reply to reports of reception. These cards were pleasant to receive, but it was on 2YA we depended; it was our 'lifeline' with the outside world.
Today 2YA is very powerful and its transmission reaches all over New Zealnad and overseas, but to no one can 2YA mean as much as it did to us as it did in those early days. We owe Mr John Ball, Mr Clive Drummond, 'Aunt Molly', and all the other announcers, programme arrangers, staff and radio technicians of 2YA very real gratitude for the pleasure, help and interest they gave to us on our backblock farm in the King Country.
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Barker - Humphrys Family Tree
1891 - 1970 (79 years)
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