RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 19, 2 September 1946, Page 5

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

USE OF PLANES STUDIED

GREAT POTENTIALITIES Tremendous possibilities for the use of aeroplanes to maintain contact with isolated back-country areas and in sowing seed and manuring the border lands between the plains and the hills to make them suitable for pasture, were mentioned by an official of the aeronautical division of the Public Works Department in an interview. An inter-departmental committee was studying the subject at the moment and was considering the setting up of an organisation on a big enough scale to deal with all* the potentialities, and a report of its findings would be made to the Govei’nment.

Already much experimental work has been done and one obvious feature of it was the great saving in both expense and time. All jobs were carefully explored before embarked upon, and the firm desire of those involved in the scheme was to keep it on a rational basis, while realising the great scope for expansion.

In one experiment carried out in the South Island, in a part of the Clarence River very difficult of access where rabbiters were working, food supplies and ammunition were taken in by aeroplane and landed safely in a day at a cost of £4O or £SO. If they had to be taken in by pack-horse it would have taken a string of horses a week to transport them out at a cost of about £IBO. In this case it was fortunate that a landing groupd had existed in the vicinity, which had made the task an easier one than some others.

Transport of Mountain Huts

Another plan which it was possible would later be carried into practice as a result of experiment in the Tararuas, where materials for the building of huts had been dropped from the air, was the transport of supplies for constructing 50 or 60 huts in the country almost up at the bush line in rough areas, which could become the headquarters for parties engaged in the destruction of deer. These huts were almost impossible to build except by this method of getting in the materials, as the time wasted by land haulage would be prohibitive. Though certain supplies had been landed in the back regions of the Tararuas, this work had been held up for several reasons, while the plane most suitable for the job had also been undergoing overhaul. The scope for aeroplanes was attracting private enterprise and already two companies had been formed to do this type of work, one at least having been licensed. Research into the advantages of sowing seed from the air had led to a widening of investigations, in response to many requests, to see what could be done about manure-laying in the same way. Whereas seed was light, and greater bulk could therefore be carried, a different approach had to be used in regard to manure. A new technique would have to be developed and different kinds of manure used in powdered form, otherwise the cost through waste would prove too great. Unless these factors were considered, and unless there was an aerodrome fairly handy to the area being worked, the scheme was only “remotely economically possible.

The type of aeroplane needed for the carrying of supplies into remote areas would need to have safety characteristics and sturdiness, and yet be light and manoeuvrable and still able to carry a good weight of material.