World Radio

Radio New Zealand suffered a sad demise a few years ago as a result of government cuts, and it is really quite an embarassment to the country now. Yet it can lay claim to some of the most important archives. It's the only country for which recordings exist from native English-speaking settlers. In this edition of Lingua Franca from the ABC, Dr Margaret Maclagan of the Origins of New Zealand English Project at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch plays a 1948 recording of Mrs. Cross a 97 year-old woman born in Dunedin in 1851.