New Zealand Memories Issue 152

STORY
Auckland’s favourite radio station by far was
‘Friendly Road’ 1ZB, run by Colin Scrimgeour
and Tom Garland. As previous Methodist city
missioner, ‘Scrim’ or ‘Uncle Scrim’ had well known
the misery of Auckland’s poor and unemployed, and
with his compassion, keen sense of social justice and
outstanding communication skills he’d become a
leading figure during Auckland’s Depression years.
He was also innovative, opportunistic and far from
unworldly, and in 1934 he’d bought Station 1ZB for
fifty pounds (after selling his wife’s piano to pay for it)
and the station had gone from strength to strength;
his weekly Sunday night talk, ‘The Man in the Street’
in particular had become almost obligatory listening.
Now, an election, postponed the previous year,
was looming. The reigning Coates / Forbes coalition
of the Reform and United Parties was seen by many
as uncaring and mean-spirited in its policy of tight
financial restraint, but then the contending Labour
Party… good heavens, could a gang of union rabblerousers
and ex-jail-birds be trusted to run the country?
The run-up to the poll was tense, and rumour spread
that during his ‘Man in the Street’ broadcast on the
Sunday evening before the election, Scrim would
openly solicit a Labour vote.
It seems that the then- postmaster-general Adam
Hamilton panicked, and suggested to his P and T
Department (but not in writing of course) that it
might be advisable that the broadcast not proceed.
Perhaps it could be ‘jammed’?
It was, and all hell broke loose. The Government
denied all responsibility, but evidence was quickly
found that the P and T Department had been directly
involved, though nothing could be sheeted home to
its Minister and ultimate responsibility was never
completely uncovered. In the backlash, Scrim was
permitted to re-broadcast his original script a night
later without interference, and it contained no
endorsement of the Labour Party.
But the damage had already been done, and in
Auckland at least, the incident had done nothing to
further the Coalition’s chances. The following Saturday
Labour was elected in a landslide victory.
All this we might have heard, but in putting the
clues together in later years, I realised Dad’s interest
lay not so much in the election result itself – which
he regarded as a foregone conclusion anyway – as
in the social changes Labour had promised, and
these, already hinted at, would be outlined in the
Speech from the Throne when the new Government
took office. Furthermore, the occasion would be
broadcast, and for the first time in the Western world,
parliamentary proceedings (and later, debates) would
be thrown open to all who might listen…and that was
why Dad had deferred the purchase of his radio.
Similar latecomers were offered an even cheaper
option than our little Skyscraper. In a wild burst of
enthusiasm that must surely have placed passion
above profit, one manufacturer produced a radio that
was not only named Parliamentary, but also carried a
picture of Parliament House placed persuasively above
its volume control.
But now, and scarcely four months after the Election,
everything, was ready, and on the 25th of March 1936
the four YA stations linked to broadcast the election of
the Speaker, and next day, the Speech from the Throne –
and It all went splendidly. However the Government’s
desire to ‘bring Parliament to the People’ was more
than a simple display of democratic fervour; it was
also a counter to what Labour perceived as a largely
hostile Press, and when it came to the parliamentary
debates broadcast in later months, both context and
speakers were carefully selected and speeches limited
in duration, to better present Government views.
If my father had expected the full cut-and-thrust
of political debate, unabridged and free from any
editorial filtering, he must have felt he wasn’t quite
getting his money’s worth from the radio he’d bought.
And he wasn’t the only one; a correspondent to the
Auckland Star wrote:
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Ref: A-312-1-191. Blomfield, William
“Auckland’s favourite radio station
by far was ‘Friendly Road’ 1ZB,
run by Colin Scrimgeour and Tom
Garland.”
Labour Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage
photographed with Colin Scrimgeour in 1938.
Auckland Weekly News August 17, 1938.
6