Television Report Prepared For Women

Press, Volume C, Issue 29497, 26 April 1961, Page 2

Television Report Prepared For Women

The advent of television in New Zealand placed a direct obligation on the parents and on the State, said Mrs E. B. Dalmer in her talk to members of the Christchurch Federated Business and Professional Women’s Club on Monday evening.

If television was to be used to its best advantage, parents must respect censorship of programmes unsuitable for their children. The State must maintain high standards of selection and censorship and encourage use of New Zealanders’ creative ability, Mrs Dalmer said.

Mrs Dalmer’s talk was a ' report on a survey of aspects < of television in New Zealand that she, with other members of i had undertaken for the National. Council ol Women. "The. questions we asked were of a kind that all people may reasonably ask, : as to how television is likely to affect them and their < families," she said. “Replies have ranged from the keenly , enthusiastic to the Intensely critical. From them we have tried to assess what we, as i women, may reasonably ask at this Stage in order that the television set in the living room may not become a mere artificial status symbol but a real asset to a New Zealand home." Mrs Dalmer said that the influence of television in other countries has been powerful and far-reaching. One survey said that it was today the greatest influence in the lives of Australians although it had been established in that country for only three years. “You may say: ‘lt won't affect me. I have no Intention of having it in the house.’ Perhaps a lot of Australians said that three years ago," she said. “You may not own a set; but' as a taxpayer you will help to pay for television. Running Costs "In 1900 a Christchurch economist estimated the total cost to the country initially as being £3.2 million, compared with the £2 million spent on radio at present. He considered that the two media would be compatible to a certain extent, thus lowering the cost. He showed that ■ running costs ?ould be very high. One good live show i could cost £2OOO but cheap i programmes could be I imported from all over the world at one quarter the cost of a New Zealand produci tion."

The speaker drew her audience’s attention to the cost to the private viewer. It would depend, she said, on whether the television set was bought outright, on hire purchase, or hired. If he paid £2OO for a set (with a life of about six yean) capital and running costs were estimated at £7O per annum, or 25s a week, or 2s an hour. “It would be interesting to compare these costs with an average family's expenditure on a year’s entertainment," said Mrs Dalmer.

Hire purchase sets would be more expensive than one bought for cash but sets could also ba hired in Christchurch. In Scotland last year sets were available for hire at a charge of 7s 6d a week and thia covered costs of installation and service. Hiring was particularly convenient for special occasions, for transients and for people with “seasonal viewing time” such as students.

"In other countries people have found the money to pay for their television sets by going without other goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, new radios, etc,” said Mrs Dalmer. “Such paradoxes occur as women going out to work to earn enough to buy a sot by making television parts, or television chairs. curtains or packaged meals for viewers.” Besides spending money on a television set, the private

viewer would spend a great deal of time on it in order to get his money’s worth. In 1958 a sutvey covering all areas and a& social classes in Englands found that two out of five people spent winter Sunday evenings watching television. Many studies in past years had shown television as a major time absorber of children’s leisure.

The uses of television in education were explained fully by Mrs Dalmer who

used statistics compiled in other countries as a background. This medium was particularly suited to demonstrations of movement and of things too small or too dangerous to bring to the classroom, she said. It also brought eminent teachers and people “to the students” and was a considerable help to teaching programmes in hospitals. Television had also proved its worth to certain handicapped sections in the community such as deaf, elderly, crippled and sick people.

Different research teams disagreed on the good or bad effect of television programmes on children, Mrs Dalmer said. One French study recommended "no television for children younger than seven years.” United States studies reported that “with the younger child who cannot yet read, television does help to improve their knowledge” and it was common in the United States for 90 per cent, of first graders to have been watching television for some time. Only 75 per cent, had had books read to them and 40 per cent

listened to the radio. Recently a West German group blamed television for everything from nightmares to diseases of eyes, jaws, heart, legs, eta, and recommended no television for children under 10. “Television is here. We would be well behind the times and the rest of the world if it were not,” said Mrs Dalmer. “But it is up to us to see that television in New Zealand profits from overseas experience and that it is of the best possible standard."