THE AIRSHIPS

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 14, 11 October 1921, Page 6

THE AIRSHIPS

MR. MASSEY EXPECTS DEVELOPMENT BUT MUCH EXPERIMENT NECESSARY "1 watched the progress of aviation with a great deal of interest while I was in Britain,” said the Prime Minister at the civic reception in AVellington yesterday. "I did not expect a great deal from aeroplanes towards the solution of the problems of inter-imperial communication, because these machines are for tho shorter distances. Tho flight of the aeroplane is limited by- the amount of petrol that can bo carried, and the number of passengers that can be carried is very small. I did hope that the airship was going to do a great deal, although 1 was not particularly sanguine about the extension of services during the next year or two. * “Yon know of the terrible accident that happened in England about six weeks ago, when the biggest airship ever built crashed and carried to death some forty men. That disaster is going to put aviation back for some years. I am quite certain of that. It means further experiments, and very costly experiments at that. The difficulties will be overcome, but it will be years before it will be possible for airships To come down to Australia and New Zealand. In the meantime we must make the best of the facilities that we have available to-dav. "I look for very important developments in tho cable and wireless services. The recent conference in London arranged for a chain of wireless stations right round the Empire, commencing in England. The first of the big stations has been erected. The next will 'be at Cairo, and the others will lie in India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. Then there may lie other stations in the Pacific, to connect with Canada. I believe that this system of wireless is going to do a great deal for us. AA e have reached a stage where the ordinary cables are unable to do everything that we require of them. ’ . , The Prime Minister mentioned that after leaving Honolulu on his way bock to New Zealand he had talked to persons ashore by- wireless telephony- when the shin was over thirty miles from the port. He had listened to music transmitted bv wireless. Extraordinary <.evelopments were taking place in wireless telegraphs and telephones, end ne thought the time was not far away when persons in AVellington would be able to talk to London.