Benalla Ensign, Thursday 3 May 1951, page 11
The New Zealand Broadcasting Services have just completed a series of television programmes carried out in conjunction with Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd.
In all, 54 sustained programmes were televised to studio audiences. The number of New Zealanders who witnessed these demonstrations exceeded 12,000.
Demonstrations were staged in both the Wellington and Auckland studios of the New Zealand Broadcasting Services.
Programmes were designed to test every facet of Indoor telecasting.
The programme range covered variety entertainment, University experiments, boxing, golf, current weather with chart illustrations, a demonstration by the Traffic Authorities on major causes of road deaths illustrated by moving models, puppets and musical artists.
The equipment used by A.W.A. in these demonstrations consisted of a 625-line Marconi camera chain. The viewing units ranged from nineteen inch screens to 10 inch screens. These were manufactured in Australia at A.W.A., Ashfielfd.
Although six sustained .shows of .forty minutes duration were staged daily and due to the wharf strike one and a half tons of delicate equipment had to be roaded over 400 miles of New Zealand's mountainous roads, no showing was in excess of 5 minutes late in commencing and not one viewing unit was ever "off the air" during the demonstration periods, even though the two shows, morning and afternoon and evening allowed no more time for maintenance than a most superficial check over.
The Hon. F. W. Doige, Minister in charge of Broadcasting, in a national broadcast, said of the demonstrations: "Here is a new social force which cannot be ignored or evaded. As we look forward to see new responsibilities and new opportunities. In Wellington privileged audiences have witnessed the shape of things to come."
In a Press interview later, the Minister stated: "Present indications are that Christchurch may be the first of the four main cities to operate a TV station. I am very keen to get TV In New Zealand but there are so many technical difficulties to be solved, before it is launched it is clear we cannot entertain the idea of an Immediate Dominion wide TV service. In its initial stages it will have to 'be localised.
Special demonstrations were also arranged for representatives of the British Association. The chairman of the Wellington Division, after witnessing the Wellington demonstration said:
"The possibilities of this are terrific. It will revolutionise the whole system of practical demonstration of surgery to students, and give them opportunities of far better instruction in this than we ourselves ever had. We were, all greatly impressed, and it was only fortunate that at short notice it was impossible to get, more doctors."
He said that it was possible to crowd at the most, about a dozen students round the operating table. Peering over one another's shoulders, they found it difficult to see what was going on, and there was always the risk of obstructing the surgeon as well, with television the image would be transmitted from a mirror placed over the operating table, and could be seen by hundreds of students in circumstances more satisfactory to them.
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