RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

N.Z.B.C. PRESENTS

As we draw closer to the United States in matters of mutual interest, such as repeling the foreign infidel and making a reasonably honest bob, we will have to exercise care and discrimination in choosing from the gifts our new friends have to offer us. Bubble gum has been more or less rejected but this habit of taking a television camera into the court-room has a certain appeal. Already we have been promised a second television station and there are bound to be some problems in finding sufficient suitable material. The drama of everyday life, as seen in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court, might well meet this need. It would, require only a little co-operation between the police and the Broadcast-

ing Commission to make possible the publication in the “Listener” of what the courts had to offer each week. It might, of course, lead to a crime wave because of a widespread desire to break into the entertainment field, and it would probably play havoc, for a while, with the university law faculty, for there would be an inevitable tendency to seek solicitors both young and handsome. There would have to be some gorgeous girls too, Portias facing life. Law students already have a considerable number of subjects in which they must pass: an additional one, the Laws of Cosmetics and the wearing of New Zealand Law Suits could be slipped in without diffi-

culty. It would not mean all the present barristers and solicitors would be sent back to bill collecting. There would be some character parts available — the silver-tongued Irish orator type, for instance, would always be welcomed for there is a distinct need for comic relief in almost every television production. Occasionally, it must be admitted, it is apparently inadvertent. A cigar and a good juicy murder case make a happy television viewer. But the Immigration Department would have to keep watching eye out: we wouldn't want that Mr Mason coming over for the pickings. He never loses a case. And that might upset the police.