NIGHT FLYING

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 19 September 1938, Page 14

NIGHT FLYING

TO SHE. EDZTOE OP THE PEEK. Sir, —We were kept awake until after 1 a.m. recently by noisy aeroplanes flying over our house at a low altitude. Is it right that people should be made to put up with this injustice, all because they have a couple of new toys to play with at Wigram. Twelve months ago night flying was always discontinued at a reasonable hour (10 p.m.). It was later carried on until 11 p.m., then 11.45 p.m. The latest is 1.15 a.m.

I should like to ask the officer in charge how long it will be before they will be flying all night, because if this sort of thing is going to continue I think it is nigh time we appealed to the Government for some “guaranteed sleep.”—Yours, etc., G. MARKER.

September 8, 1938. [When this letter was referred to the Air Secretary of the Air Department, he said: “Night flying at Wigram was not undertaken ‘because they have a couple of new toys,’ which I take is a reference to the fact that two new Airspeed. Oxfords have recently been received. No night (flying has, in fact, yet been done on these machines, and the occurrence concerning'which the correspondent complains is part of the normal service training in night flying, that is necessary at a flying training school in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. In winter months it is possible to commence night flying training very much earlier than at other times during the year. It is regretted that some inconvenience is caused to local residents, but this is unavoidable and should not occur on more than four nights out of a period s three months.”] ...

THE COST OF ARMAMENTS TO THE EDITOm OT THE PEESS. Sir, —I have recently heard ‘it publicly stated (over the--air) that civilised countries have already spent the colossal sum of £62,000,000,000 m preparations for the next war. We all most assuredly have something coming to us, whether we go to • the _ war ■ or not. It should not be forgotten that the pneumonic influenza plague (an aftermath of the last little dust up) cost more in lives than the Great War, I have been trying to imagine just how much £1,000,000,000 means, and computing this number on a work basis. I find that working eight hours a day, six days a week, and counting at the rate of £1 a second, it would be physically impossible for any individual to finish the job this side of the grave. A lad of 16 starting on this interesting task would be, if he could be, 127 years of age by the time the last note had passed through his hands SixtyHwo thousand millions at the same rate, one individual following on another, would take 6882 years to C °This money (where does it_ alb come from?) has been used, to build battleships, submarines, mines, bombers guns, bombs, uniforms, gas-masks, and ration-tickets, etc.—things no individual desires or needs. It has been worked for and spent by the great majority in obtaining food, clothing, and shelter etc,, which every individual desires and needs. The workers, through economic stress, had no power to choose what they would make with their labour. It is difficult to conceive what the state of the people - would - have been had this money nOt been forthcoming. Millipps more would"have beea. unemployed. People with the “work for work’s sake’.’ complex, together with the international financier, will be able to thank God for work and incidentally. armaments; that is, of course, until they, the armaments, return. Yours, etc.. R NICHOLSON . ; September 18, 1938.