RNZ: Spectrum

In June 1913, William Massey's government clamped down on youths who were avoiding recently introduced military training. When a dozen or so young conscientious objectors were incarcerated in Fort Jervois on Ripapa Island in Lyttelton Harbour(also known as Ripa island), the controversy erupted country-wide.(first broadcast December 1980).

A look at the Rural Education Activities Programme (REAP ) - an innovative education initiative launched in New Zealand in 1979 . This unique 'cradle to the grave' education programme was set up to meet the wide and varied needs of those living in remote rural communities. For Spectrum, Jerome Cvitanovich meets some of the community education officers of this programme at recent reunion in Wellington.

Orpheus Beaumont was named after New Zealand's worst maritime disaster, the sinking of the HMS Orpheus on the Manukau Harbour Bar 151 years ago. It was thought her teenage brother, Henry Newman, was on board and presumed drowned. Orpheus' mother in her grief named her unborn child after the ship. The sea claimed the life of another of Orpheus' brothers and when the 'unsinkable' Titanic struck disaster, Orpheus answered a call to design a functioning lifejacket better than the cork ones then in use. Her design for the Salvus Kapok Lifejacket was accepted and she received an order from Britain for 30,000. The design became a worldwide standard for many years. Spectrum hears the tale of one New Zealand woman's struggle against the sea and how her determination saved countless lives.

Everyone knows the Order of St John in New Zealand, which operates most of the country's ambulance services. But what do you know about its history?

Vincent Aspey was a key figure in the development of music in the middle of last century. For 20 years he was leader of the National Orchestra formed in 1946 (later re-named the NZ Symphony Orchestra) as well as being an outstanding concert violinist. Vincent Aspey's son, Vince Aspey junior, also a fine violinist, recalls his father in conversation with Jack Perkins.

'Brass banding is a great relaxation,' says Bill Rimmer, a Soprano Cornet player with The Band of the Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery, 'We all come from different walks of life…and we're all brought together by music.' The 'Arty' Band, as it's affectionately known, has been bringing its members together for the past 149 years, making it the oldest band in New Zealand with a continuous playing history. Established in 1864, the Band has played on through two World Wars, the Great Depression and at least 35 New Zealand Premiers and Prime Ministers. On the eve of the band's 150 anniversary celebrations, Spectrum's Lisa Thompson hears how its members are still marching on.

Tiritiri Matangi means 'buffeted by wind'. These days the windy island just off Auckland is a bushy sanctuary to thousands of native birds. Some of them hadn't been seen in Auckland for a hundred years while others had faced complete extinction. Twenty five years ago the Tiritiri Matangi Supporters group was formed, and since then members have helped replant well over half the island in native flora, and helped DOC with funding to reintroduce native fauna. For Spectrum David Steemson visits Tiritiri to talk to the founders of the Supporters group.

It's one of New Zealand's greatest aviation questions - did farmer and inventor Richard Pearse achieve controlled flight before the Wright Brothers in 1903? While a definitive answer may never be known, there's one man who is determined to see if Pearse's patented aircraft will actually fly. Automotive engineer Ivan Mudrovcich has dedicated nearly a decade to building a reproduction of Richard Pearse's early flying machine. Spectrum's Lisa Thompson pays a visit to Ivan's garage and finds a backyard inventor adding his own chapter to our aviation history.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, George Davies, along with his mates Curly and Big Mac, gave up the struggle to survive in the city and travelled to the Howard goldfield in the Upper Buller to try their luck, in part attracted by the government's Gold Subsidy Scheme. They mixed with characters and criminals and found that gold recovery was back-breaking work. But they served an apprenticeship, found physical and mental skills previously unknown to them and became practitioners of a craft. (first broadcast in May 1972)

Wellington's St Peters Anglican church on Willis St, established in 1848, has a long history of providing succour for the poor and under-privileged and taking a strong stand on controversial topics and issues of social justice. Spectrum's Jack Perkins attends a Sunday morning service and climbs the bell tower where he's told about possible bold new plans to restore and strengthen the structure which would allow the 8 bells to peal out like never before.

Caesar Roose was born in 1886 on an island in the Waikato River, opposite the railway town of Mercer. At the age of eighteen, he launched his first commercial boat and for the next 60-years Roose vessels traded along the big river and its many tributaries. His only child, Jeanette Thomas, has just opened her own museum in Mercer to remember her father and his place in Mercer's history.

The Battle for Monte Cassino, 70 years ago, has been described as the 'forgotten campaign' of the Second World War. But for mosaic artist, Janice Corbishley, the connection with the small Italian town of Cassino could not be stronger. Because it is there that her uncle Trevor Corbishley fought alongside hundreds of other New Zealand soldiers over a long and bloody five-month period in 1944. His story is being shared as part of a commemorative art exhibition titled Legato. This programme replaces the advertised 'St Peters on Willis' which will now play on June 1st.

Working with temperatures in excess of 1000 °C, blacksmith Kim Nielsen says on a cold winter's day there's no better place to be than next to his forge. Kim and his father Ian run one of the last production blacksmith workshops in the country, based in Auckland's industrial heartland of Penrose. Join Spectrum's Lisa Thompson as the Nielsens fire up their coke forge.

Paul Charman captures the sound of places seldom trod and talks to passengers with a life-long passion for birds and an enduring love of plants. Each summer fewer than a thousand nature tourists get to visit New Zealand's stormy sub Antarctic islands. Numbers are deliberately kept low to reduce the impact on the islands' famed bird and plant life. This summer Auckland journalist Paul Charman was amongst the lucky few, aboard the good ship 'Spirit of Enderby'.

Researcher Margaret Tate shows Spectrums Jack Perkins around Palmerston North's Savage Crescent state housing precinct and they also meet long-time residents. Savage Crescent dates from 1937 and was designed as a garden suburb with curved streets, a variety of housing styles and a central common reserve. Named after the Prime Minister of the first Labour Government, It was the first of its kind outside the 4 main centres and has changed little in over 70 years.