Probing questions were missed in “Gallery”

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33033, 28 September 1972, Page 4

Probing questions were missed in “Gallery”

It was rather a pity that the Minister of Health, Mr AdamsSchneider, did not come to the party on Tuesday evening to give the Government’s point of view on a matter of concern to Christchurch—the establishment of a third heart surgery unit in New Zealand.

This item on "Gallery” was hardly up to the usual high standard we have come to expect from the current affairs team.

Whether it was the insistence of the medical men on reading what they had to say, or the reluctance to ask questions in a highly specialised field we will never know, but the item did suffer through the absence of the usual series of probing Exel questions. Ministers, of course, are free to accept or reject invitations to appear on “Gallery,” but it hardly helps the programme or viewers’ understanding of all the facts when they elect to stay away. And after all, it is taxpayers’ money which is involved.

The coverage of the "non-

violent training school” run by an American Quaker, Mr George Lakey, was interesting though at times rather dull.

However, the linking of protest with next year’s Springbok tour and the attitudes of people such, as Mr Bob Fenton, certainly provided a great deal of food for thought. It was here that “Gallery” once again showed its strength. It was not content merely to show a series of shots of Mr Tom Newnham and others playing policemen or demonstrators, and analysing reactions; it went further to include the viewpoint of a great many other New Zealanders on the antitour movement.

It was interesting, too, to see how this view was expressed—a kind of resentment against what was described as "an embryonic dictatorship” which is how the anti-tour movement is apparently viewed. The only gap in an otherwise excellent coverage of the subject was in reflecting just what Mr Fenton does consider a “right reason” for abandoning the tour. It was intriguing, incidentally, to hear that the young Quaker’s- idea of an ideal society was Bombay in the

19305. Idealism is, of course, a wonderful thing, but the question remains as to just how satisfactory Mr Lakey would find the situation could he be transported backwards in time. * # 4: The state of marriage provides infinite scope for humour, and it is a matter for regret that the programme, "Love, American Style” makes such a hamfisted effort at portraying some situations begging for exploitation.

The situation involving the buzzing fly—who hasn't been infuriated at home by a fly that evades every attempt at capture—lapsed into absurdity when the comic-strip artist and his manager dashed off to buy another “pet.” Not only was the natural humour of the situation killed, but the average viewer was from then on unable to identify with the couple. Whose wife has even thought of playing such an idiotic trick? "Love and the Millionaires” brought in as the stockbroker that nasty fellow from the children’s space programme which did not help an already overstrained theme.

And “Love and Double Trouble” was the most unlikely trouble any young man could possibly find himself in. Being hit over the head with a salami is one thing, but would the young lady be likely to have come back so soon? It was a pity that situations and conflicts so familiar to everyone could not have been dealt with in a more convincing, lighthearted way. There is nothing quite so cheering to have evidence that other people share the same problems and frustrations, and the best thing to do often is to laugh about them.-—PANDORA’S GUEST.