AERIAL MAILS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 20, 18 October 1918, Page 6

AERIAL MAILS

SIR JOSEPH WARD'S PLANS

A SCHEME ALREADY IN HAND

Aerial mail services will be in operation in New Zealand very soon after the close of the war. The -PostmasterGeneral (Sir Joseph Ward) has taken a keen interest in this matter, and while lie was in the United Kingdom recently he took steps to''secure full information regarding the work of the latest aeroplanes and their capacity for the sort of service that will be required in Now Zealand. He believes that it will be possible to beyin the aerial carriage ot mails in this country within six or nine months of the close of the war.

Sir Joseph Ward informed a Dominion reporter yesterday that he was in communication with the British Air Department and the head of the great Haiidley Page aeroplane works. He visited these works while in England, and saw some of the wonderful flying craft that have been developed during the past twelve months. He expects to receive some additional information shortly, including the outline of a scheme for the use of aeroplanes in the New Zealand postal service, and ho will then place proposals before tho members of Parliament and the public for genera! consideration. It is likely that certain legislation will be required before an aerial postal service can be brought into existence. A" landing-place for aeroplanes will be required at each centre. The Post-master-General stated yesterday that he was informed the landing-place must be a strip of fiat land 500 yards square, in order that the machines might run against the wind in any direction when rising. Gales do not trouble the powerful machines that are now being produced. They will fly securely in any wind, and the only obstacles that really trouble them are fog and very heavy rain. Fog and rain do not interfere with flight, but they complicate landinge and risings, and make it difficult for the pilot to find his way from point to point. New Zealand suffers very little from fogs, and the prevailing clearness of the atmosphere woula be a factor in favour of the aeroplanes. "I have seen the newest aeroplanes flying in higii winds," said Sir Joseph Ward. 'They are completely at home in the air, and are in no danger of being made the sport of the winds. They have the easy motion of the gull. They will not nose dive or tail dive if the engines stop during (flight, the machine will settle down on an oven keel, and will remain under the control of the , pilot ns far as direction is concerned. Many of the disabilities that belonged to the aeroplane two or three years_ ago have been overcome altogether, owing to die experience of the war, and tho flying men and manufacturers are still evolving improvements. Tho element (if danger has been almost entirely eliminated. Accidents, when they occur now, arc due to the ttkings of risks that would not require to be faced at all under the conditions of flying in peace time. "I have no doubt about the financial success of the aerial postal service. Tiie amount that we would save in subsidies, paid at present for the conveyance of mails, would more than cover interest and sinking fund on the initial expenditure. The saving in time would be enormous. Mails would go from Wellington, to Christchurch in two hours and a half, and from "Wellington to Dunedin in five hours. A service of the kind I have in mind will provide employment for some of our experienced New Zealand flying men, and that is a very important factor. These men in many cases will not wish to abandon flying, and the skill and knowledge they have acquired ought not to be wasted." Sir Joseph Ward added that the carriage of passengers by aeroplano and the extension of the aerial service to Australia, and even further afield were matters that would have to receive attention in tho near future. He had .no doubt at all that trans-ocean flights were going to be made. The British aeroplanes, as ho had stated on an earlier occasion, wero best in the world, and the aeroplane 'factories of tho Mother Country had manufacturing facilities that would bo applied to the commercial production of aeroplanes as soon as the war was onded.