A compilation of three audio cuts:
1. According to an unidentified man introducing the recording, these are Māori Battalion songs performed by the 2NZEF and probably recorded in 1943. [This is unverified. These have been dubbed from discs onto analogue tape.]
Māori Battalion March - in English and te reo Māori
Rukuhia rā e hoa mā te Moana - a song of tribute to 2nd Lieutenant Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu
Au e Ihu
Tenei mātou [?]
Waiata for Ngarimu
Unidentified waiata
Unidentified waiata
2. Tributes to New Zealand poet Walter D'Arcy Cresswell [presumably recorded on his death in February 1960]
The first by his friend Ormond Wilson, who describes Cresswell's life in London in recent years, working as a night watchman and writing poetry during the day. He had been living in a cottage in St John's Wood since 1938, apart from a trip to New Zealand in 1951. He talks about the varied circles Cresswell moved in, which he has written about in his autobiographies. Wilson describes Cresswell's belief in portents and omens, his dedication to his poetry and his deeply ambivalent feelings towards New Zealand. He pays tribute to Cresswell's letter-writing and hopes his letters will be published.
Robert. M. Chapman of Auckland University evaluates D'Arcy Cresswell as an autobiographer and poet.
3. A tribute to Sir Thomas Beecham by John Hopkins, conductor of the National Orchestra of New Zealand.[presumably recorded on his death in March 1961.]