Panorama of New Zealand

"Panorama of New Zealand" was a half-hour radio programme recorded over two discs, supplied to the BBC for broadcast on Empire Day, 24 May 1938. It was written and produced by William Yates who had joined the Broadcasting Board in March 1934 as Supervisor of Plays. The programme "for our kinsmen at Home" portrays New Zealand as "The Britain of the South".
No cast list is supplied but it is likely that Professor James Shelley, Director of Broadcasting, is one of the voices. (Several Māori waiata are introduced but not heard - presumably recordings of them were to be edited in at the time of broadcast. There is also some speed fluctuation at the start of some of the discs.)

D444.1.1
Two unidentified men introduce the programme with patriotic descriptions of New Zealand. The only speaker identified is announcer Hēnare Kohere Ngata, who introduces a picture of Māori life. He explains the origins of the haka, describing the appearance of the performers, Rotohiko Haupapa and the Rotorua Māori Choir. A haka is heard.
D444.2.1 A segment on Māori music follows with a recordings of the flute, the koauau, played by an unidentified Māori woman who is said to be the last exponent of the art. She plays a lament composed by a woman for her lover who had sailed away.
Four unidentified Māori women sing a lament composed by Te Rauparaha's daughter Te Uira over 100 years earlier. This is then contrasted with "E pari ra", which is introduced as an example of a modern Māori composition. ['E pari ra" is not heard on this recording.]

D479.1
New Zealand's fauna are described via a dramatisation of a naturalist talking about the native bird and animal life of the country and explaining the features of the moa and tuatara to visitors to a museum.
Bagpipes introduce a segment on Scottish settlers to New Zealand. Mr McKay, a grandson of one of the original Waipu settlers, tells the story of that settlement and its leader Reverend Norman McLeod. He ends by greeting 'our cousins' in Scotland and Canada, Australia and South Africa.

D479.2
The wool industry is introduced with sound effects of dogs barking and sheep. There are 30 million sheep in New Zealand, two-thirds of which is sent to Britain. The shearing and sorting process is described, with an excerpt of actuality from a wool sale auction, with an auctioneer and wool buyers shouting - 'a veritable pandemonium'. The name 'Brookbank' is mentioned several times by the auctioneer.

"The Devil's Playground" of Rotorua is introduced with dramatic music. The town is described, and a joke made of a Briton and Scotsman trying to pronounce the name of the village of Whakarewarewa. A Māori woman, Laura Metekingi, pronounces it correctly for them. She then introduces Whakarewarewa, with a recreation of sound effects of children diving for tourist pennies.

D444.1.2 An unidentified woman [probably Laura Metekingi from D479] introduces a studio recreation of sound effects of Whakarewarewa thermal area - boiling water, steaming geysers and mud pools. She describes a scene in the village, with women using the thermal pools for cooking and washing clothes. She gives a general description of Rotorua's thermal activity as a tourist attraction. A male announcer intones that it is "'verily a devil's playground". A concert for tourists is introduced and the 'love ditty, Pokarekare" ["Pokarekare ana" is not heard on the recording.]

An Empire Day message is given by Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage followed by a choir singing "God Defend New Zealand", the national hymn.
A male announcer farewells listeners in 'the motherland' and introduces a final song of farewell by 'the Māori men and maidens' which is not heard on the recording.