Is Omega any use to New Zealand?

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31981, 7 May 1969, Page 12

Is Omega any use to New Zealand?

The Prime Minister, in his statement of June 24, 1968, made his only serious factual error when he said: “The [Omega] system would therefore be of particular value in and round the countries in which stations are established.” This statement is in direct contradiction to the facts which must have been at that time in the hands of the Government. As the Royal Society Report later said: “A station cannot be used for navigational fix if the receiver vessel or aircraft is within about a 600-mile radius of the station. Other stations in the world network would be used in such circumstances. A station in the South Island of New Zealand would provide no useful information for internal airlines or coastal shipping to beyond Chatham Islands.” “Omega System Quotations,” cites the above statement by the Royal' Society Committee, but with two notable alterations. It omits the middle sentence, thus failing to point out that ships and aircraft in the vicinity of New Zealand will still be able to use the system: and it changes “internal airlines” to “international airlines.”

Mr Wilkes quotes a columnist in the magazine “Radio, Electronics and Communications” (February, 1969) as having “usefully summarised what New Zealand’s attitude should be,” The columnist devotes a few unsympathetic paragraphs to Omega in the course of a long article on an-

other subject near the back of the magazine.

But if one wants to know the official view of the New Zealand Electronics Institute one will more likely find it in the magazine’s editorial in the same issue—which Mr Wilkes does not mention. The editorial is far from being a well-argued defence of Omega, but there is no mistaking its message: opponents of Omega have shown “lack of responsibility” and their attitude has little justification.

The question of Omega's usefulness to New Zealand was mentioned in Mr McNeill’s interview. He was asked the question: “As a scientist primarily concerned with technical accuracy, how would you describe the External Affairs Department’s paper?" Mr McNeill said in the course of his reply: "The External Affairs paper is extremely careless In the use of known facts, especially when dealing with technical aspects of Omega. It starts by implying that the report of the Omega (Royal Society) Committee outlines New Zealand’s interest in a good, long-range navigation system. Nothing of the kind. The Omega Committee report states in lucid and supple English what it knows about the system; nothing .more." Reference to the Royal Society Report, however, reveals that the third paragraph says: “A good, long range navigation system should be useful to New Zealand.”