WHAT OF TELEVISION?

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 10

WHAT OF TELEVISION?

Assistant P.M.G.’s Views

INCREASE IN ENJOYMENT

Sir Ernest Bennett, M.P., the Assistant Postmaster-General, writing in ‘‘The News-Letter." says; “What will be the nature of television programmes ? It is difficult to say. Speakers, actors and artists can be. ‘televised’; and apart from studio scenes, films will be transmitted.

‘‘There seems every likelihood also that it will be found possible to present certain outdoor scenes which can be brought within a small compass, such as a tennis match, the finish of the Boat Race, the passing of the Lord Mayor’s Show or any other procession. "I do not think that television will ever deter people from attending theatres, concerts or sports events, but it will enable many hundreds of thousands to whom actual attendance is impossible to enjoy the next best thing, that of hearing and seeing by means of television events which are taking place far away from their homes. "For some time to come television cannot become a common lecture in the daily lives of the population. The initial price of the receiving set, £5O, or so, will naturally place it beyond the reach of modest family incomes. But the experience of the past leads one to anticipate that these economic barriers will soon become less formidable.

“The gap between the users of normal wireless sets and three who had to be content with the cheaper and uncomfortable earphones was soon bridged; arid well within the next ten years inexpensive and reliable television apparatus may, like the existing radio, have made its welcome entrance into at least half the homes of our people. “At times, it may be, one would prefer to walk by faith rather than by sight. It is a better thing to hear the bells of Bethlehem than to see the traditional Birthplace crowded with the tawdry insignia of rival Christian churches.

‘‘Broadcasting and long distance telephony are making it more difficult to sustain any crusade of national hatred engineered by Governments or newspapers; and three vile efforts may be still further frustrated, if from time to time, amid the stress and peril of international misunderstandings, we not only hear the voice of men and women like ourselves in foreign lands, but behold them in happy scenes of homo life taking part in the came sports and pastimes as ourselves, worshipping in their churches the common God and Father of mankind. ‘‘Television has come to stay; it is of vital importance that its progress should be ordered with only one object in view—that of service to the community.”