TV NOT MISSED
The visitor to Otematata village, near the Benmore power project, is immediately struck by the fact that something is missing something now such a familiar part of cities and towns. The houses containing the married workers and families, the single men’s camp, the shops, school sports grounds, hospital, hotel, and all the normal amenities and features of a township are spread over 340 acres of flat ground in a figure eight.
The factor that irritates by its absence is that there is not one television aerial.
The village, made to build the biggest single power project In the Southern Hemisphere, has its power supplied from Lake Waitaki. When
Benmore Is operating, Its power will be for the North Island.
A television repeater station is planned by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation on the hills near Waimate. It will give coverage for Timaru and Oamaru.
It could give coverage for Otematata. Nobody in the village seemed certain on this point, or, unusually, very interested in the question. The sports dub officials, publican, and many others made it clear they preferred to be without television.
Otematata, with a population of 4650, with the youngest average age of any centre in New Zealand, appears to be doing well without television and not missing it
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30431, 4 May 1964, Page 1
Word Count
214TV NOT MISSED Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30431, 4 May 1964, Page 1
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