The year our TVs turned to colour
New Zealand’s population is increasing by one person every 5 minutes and 26 seconds. In the next few months we’ll have 5 million people. This fivepart series looks ahead to what the nation will be like when that milestone is reached, and recalls what it w
It was the “greatest thing since sliced bread” for Paul de Jonge, who remembers clearly rushing home from school that day in 1973 to watch television — for the first time in colour.
He was then a 13-year-old student at Papatoetoe Intermediate School, and the family’s colour TV made him very popular with his friends.
“We just couldn’t wait for school to end so we could all rush to my place,” de Jonge said.
“I still remember how excited we all were as we watched Sesame Street, and how life-like Bert, Ernie and Big Bird all looked.”
Colour television was broadcast for the first time in New Zealand on October 31, 1973. It was also around that time when the country’s population passed three million.
“For us kids, colour TV was the best thing since sliced bread and I remember going ‘wow’ at how amazing all the graphics and even advertisements looked.”
The radio and stage show It’s in the Bag made its TV debut that year, and ran until 1990.
Sesame Street was one of the first selected programmes screened in colour. It was not until 1975 that TV went colour full-time.
De Jonge remembers his family had to pay $35 for a licence to own a colour TV — “quite a lot of money” at the time. “The programmes in colour were mainly American shows,” he recalled. “The British shows were still in black and white.
“So we were watching more American shows and it opened our eyes to the outside world. It got a lot of Kiwis dreaming about moving overseas.”
New Zealand added one million to its population in a relatively short
21-year period between 1952 and 1973.
Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley said a major contributor to the growth was the post-World War II “baby boom”.
During the period, there were about four births per woman.
“We experienced a major growth over the period when the impact of the baby boom population increase, and high fertility, occurred,” he said.
Dr Wardlow Friesen, associate professor of geography at the University of Auckland, said although generally about 80 per cent of New Zealand’s population growth was due to natural increase, the rise was far greater during the “baby boom” period.
But fertility rates fell after 1973 as a wider range of contraception and sterilisation methods became available, and NZ went through a “baby bust”.
More Kiwis started moving overseas, especially to Australia, after a transtasman travel deal allowed citizens of both countries to travel without a passport.
Norman Kirk was Prime Minister and Labour had a majority of 55 seats to National’s 32 seats.
A proposed 1973 Springbok tour was cancelled by the Kirk-led Government amid fears it could spark the “greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known”.
When Arab oil producers decided to cut supplies after the Yom Kippur war with Israel, the first oil shock hit. Prices soared from US$3 a barrel to around US$20 virtually overnight. The NZ economy was hit hard.
Higher fuel prices pushed up freight costs, and wages and retail prices rose. The combination of events contributed to the country’s slip into recession by 1976. Britain’s 1973 decision to join the European Economic Community gave the economy another jolt.
All bilateral agreements between the traditional allies had to be terminated and preferential treatment of British exports to NZ ended four years later.
Britain, the “Mother Country”, had until then been New Zealand’s major export market and main supplier of imports.
In 1973, exports to Britain fell to less than 30 per cent of all exports and in the next two decades slipped below 10 per cent.
Back on the telly, the wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips on November 14 became the first international live broadcast in NZ.
Kiwis had their eyes glued on colour TV screens as the royal couple walked through Westminster Abbey.
It was estimated a global audience
of 500 million people watched the ceremony.
The Princess travelled to the abbey in a glass state coach with her father, the Duke of Edinburgh.
De Jonge said it was considered “almost unbelievable” at the time that an event taking place half the world away could be watched “live” here.
The ceremony featured state carriages, the Household Calvary, Irish Guards and Coldstream Guards.
The wedding cake had silver tiers formed in the shape of a hexagon with a statue of a female jockey leaping a fence placed on top as a tribute to Anne’s career as an equestrian.
On the local entertainment scene, comedian John Clarke introduced New Zealand to his alter-ego Fred Dagg and a host of “Trevs”.
Dagg was a stereotypical farmer and Kiwi bloke from Taihape. His signature outfit was a black singlet and gumboots.
He would poke fun at Kiwi blokes and “sheilas” on his show.
Events that made the news included the arrest of 23 protesters after clashes with police outside American defence facilities at Harewood and Weedons in Christchurch.
In sport, Kiwi batsman Glenn Turner became just the seventh cricketer to score 1000 runs in firstclass matches in England.
New Zealand hosted and won the inaugural Oceania Cup football tournament after they beat Tahiti 2-0 in the final.
The country hit record temperatures that year. On February 7 the mercury hit 42.4C in Rangiora, 42.3C in Marlborough and 41.6C in Christchurch. Darfield and Temuka both also reached 39.4C.