WEEK-END POSTPONEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 232, 1 October 1928, Page 10

WEEK-END POSTPONEMENT.

BLENHEIM DISAPPOINTED.

GREAT CROWDS VISIT AERODROME

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, this day. A very large crowd gathered on Saturday in Blenheim from all parts of the Dominion, and all day on Saturday they streamed out to the aerodrome, where the big monoplane is housed, with a Bristol Fighter plane tucked under each wing. Camera "fiends" were busy, and owing to the very fine arrangements made by the Aero Club officials the visitors could obtain a close view of the big plane without interfering with it. On Saturday afternoon SquadronLcader Kingsford Smith and FlightLieutenant Ulm made a final overhaul of the Southern Cross, and replaced the propellers which were damaged on the flight to New Zealand. The tanks were filled with fuel, and everything was in readiness for the take-off. Late in the afternoon, however, the weather report was pessimistic, and when it was amplified later, Flight-Lieutenant Ulm announced officially that owing to the bad weather outlook in the Tasman the flight would not start, as had been intended, at 4.45 on Sunday morning. This was a great disappointment to the crowds of visitors. The weather yesterday gave no better promise, and the airmen announced that there was no prospect of their leaving on Monday morning. The visitors in Blenheim included people who motored from Nelson, the West Coast and Christchurch. Some came in buses. An excursion steamer brought 500 people from Wellington. Many Presents for Airmen. During the week-end the co-com-manders of the Southern Cross were each presented with a Maori mat by the Marlborough Maoris. The Aero Club gave each of the four airmen an inscribed gold cigarette case. Mr. George Edwards, of Auckland, at one time of Blenheim, sent a fine rupr, made by himself, for the floor of the monoplane's cabin. The central design of the rug is a kiwi, symbolical of the Dominion Aero Clubs, "which are anxious to fly, but have no wings." Miss Smith, furrier, of Wellington, sent each man a 'fur waistcoat, to keep them warm on the trip back, as she had noted in the stoiy of the flight that "it was very cold and we were still shivering." Mr. H. Lloyd, Wellington, sent four greenstone tikis. Messrs Fairhall Brothers, owners of the flying field, presented an enlarged photograph of the field in harvest time.