STORY:
Farmer Sells TV Rights to First Dawn

New Zealand Government wins out over CNN for exclusive broadcast from Pitt Island

After months of haggling between governments and TV networks, a New Zealand sheep rancher who owns the hill where the Year 2000 will dawn first has made up his mind. Ruka Lanauze owns Hapeka Hill on Pitt Island, part of the Chatham Islands, some 500 miles east of the New Zealand capital Wellington. Lanauze's hill was designated by London's Royal Geographical Society as the place where dawn will break first on land that is inhabited by people.

The Lanauze family will sell the rights to broadcast the moment to the New Zealand Government for $200,000 NZ dollars ($104,000 US) rejecting a bid of $500,000 ($260,000) by the Cable News Network (CNN) according to the Sydney Morning Herald. But, Lanauze says the deal allows him to make more money by selling the rights for still photography and Internet images.

The money will be paid into the Bevan Lanauze Memorial Charitable Trust for the benefit of the islanders. Bevan Lanauze, Ruka's brother, died in a fishing accident.

As to why he took the lesser offer, Lanauze told The Herald, "they're pretty lucky we are patriotic sort of people." Just 55 people, several thousand sheep and tens of thousands of seals live on Pitt Island.

Meanwhile, the Ngati Porou tribe has reportedly been offered around $400,000 ($208,000 US) from the New Zealand millennium office for a planned dawn ceremony for 2,500 people at the spot where dawn will break first on New Zealand's mainland. Mount Hikurangi will see dawn 40 minutes after Pitt Island.

Ken Lanauze has previously warned that broadcasters would be taking a gamble at dawn on January 1st because there was a good chance that Pitt Island would be shrouded in mist.

The US Navy said recently first dawn of 2000 on earth will take place a few minutes after midnight on January 1 2000 on the Dibble Glacier in Antarctica. Reports say the spot where the dawn can be view hasn't been visited by anyone in years, if ever.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

DATE: 8/26/99

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