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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 11 June 5, 1968

Viewing ... with Sludge

Viewing ... with Sludge

Portrait of man with eye batch and beard

Well, now that the plague of frogs has subsided I thought that it would be as good a time as any to assess the NZBC coverage of the disaster.

Little did we think that the early Weather Bureau "Frog Warning" would be so accurate.

Full marks all round for that delightful shot of Dougal Stevenson wallowing in frogs whilst attempting to enunciate "Hawke's Bay, Taumarunui, Taihape, Wanganui and Northern Manawatu: frogs light to variable with scattered spawn about the Ranges later. . . . . . "

If only the News had come up to the same standard. Viewers found themselves forced to watch unimaginative sequences of swarming frogs with only the occasional load to liven the proceedings.

I don't know about you but when I've seen one frog I've seen them all.

Why wasn't the Prime Minister invited to hop down (if you'll pardon the expression) to Bowen Street to assure the notion thai all was under control?

Why were there no pictures of the search and destroy missions in Island Bay?

All we got instead was a boring list of figures flashed on the screen from time to time like some kind of referendum.

You know:

Frogs killed 43,906
Still limping 375,892
Still hopping 1,200,873,000

Not until the interview with the head of the Earthquake and Frog Damage Commission did the true heartbreak of the situation become very real to us all.

Tales of whole villages and towns ripped to pieces by the croaking hordes.

This was true television! (As indeed was the announcement the Earthquake and Frog Damage Fund now stands at $16.50).

But surely the most startling revelation of the whole period was Lindsay Maccallum's brilliant assessment of the political leanings of the frogs.

Apparently they had been dishing out tiny green editions of "Toad of Toad Hall" and hopping to death anyone who refused to read.

The highlight of the programme was the interview with a captured frog who croaked that he was "just obeying orders."

Once again it has been proved that the Corporation is at its best when there's a plain common-or-garden shipwreck or famine.

Certainty its rising star is Paddy O'Donnell. I'd love to see him given the chance to have a good crack (if you'll pardon the expression) at a moderate-sized earthquake.

Or is thai too much to hope for?