In the Air.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 April 1911, Page 4

In the Air.

— THE TRAVELS OF A NEW ZINLANDER MR J. HAMMOND—FARM'ER, COWBOY. AVIATOR. Mr J. J. Hammond, a pilot of the air, who has recently been viewing Melbourne, Geelong, and other places from a position in th eair—- the man who raced the Adelaide express from Melbourne to Geelong. and who is now going to afford Sydney people au opportunity of seeing what can lie done in the direction of aerial navi-gation-arrived in Sydney last week, and the Sun had a good look at the old Manuka is man.

Air Hammond is in appearance about tlio .last man in ;i itoiv.'? tliat you would pick upon a.s likely to undertake adventures, ('specially if they took him out of the beaten tracks A tall, .slim man, of an age that is indefinite, because ho is clean shaven. A man who anpears to "take things as they come," and meet them when they meet him. The s;;rt of individual who would "keep his hair on" in the most exciting moments, and wonder afterwards why people commented upon anything that he might have achieved. And a man who would never under any circumstances eonverse ahout himself and his performances—that is J. J. Hammond, the man who in Perth and Melbourne did wihat no other man has yet done in Australia.

He was originally a New Zealand' • —comes from Feilding, "which isomewhere in the North Tsland" thi is the way the Sun's interviewer put - it), and has been "out "West" in Am erica and Canada; has visited, everv country in Europe; lived "m the land" in the Dominion; rounded up cattle in big mobs on the rolling prairies; and qualified in France for a certificate of proficiency as an aviator.

Five years ago, or little more, he left New Zealand, and since then has crowded much into a life that to ordinary mortals would ..have been exciting. but which to him was ordinary. But as a man who is largely in the public eye he is extraordinary. He won't advertise himself. Whatever lie has to do he w'ill do because it is part of the dav's work, and a first acquaintance with him imposes upon liis visitor the idea that lie must know Mr Hammond a long time before he knows him at all. Ahout nil! ho will tell about his experience in out-back America is that he was there. You ask if be had adventures there, and he smiles and .says. "Some papers have said so." You pursue the subject with a reference to "stirring times" and he tells you that he had "none for publication Then you get on the question of aviation, and literallv drag out of him the fact that he has been flving for about two vears. He has done most of it for pleasure. He has not cone for big competitions, hut he Was seen man v. He has seen others have "experiences." and ho has seen had breaks. "Have yon not had some adventures of your own?" he is asked, hnf he smilingly replies that his record is that he "has never, yet broken any piece of the machine." The story of aviation, as it has been told in the cables, lias been such a- long record of accidents and disasters that one looks admiringly at Mr Hammond ancl asks whether he has never had; narrow escapes, but he only replies that he has "not yet had a.n accident." He will not talk ahout, what be did in "West Australia and Victoria, because he has not done anything in Sydney yet. And, altogether. Mr Hammond is a man who does things —a man whoso personality and manner would give confidence to the passenger sitting behind him ion his biplane feeling sure that if he wn.s in a tight' place ho would know how to get out of it, and that he would never let Hie novice know how close the call had been.

TTo has taken inn nv passengers up into the nir wifvlv him—men and 1 women—and the first lnrlv who took o sent behind him was his wife

Com hi <r to the busing end of the talk. tlio .nnator said ho linn?/! +/> fl.v over Svdnov in tbe vorv near future, and he did not know how lonf? lio wnnldi here—in fnot, nll "ho do®' s ! know lip 1-fippc; j-r> hiniPolf wHh a PfiroFnl porsiVennv flmt mpv be Tio+ijvnllv nnniiirnrl fro'-i liiq wmr+rv lifo 1„ \W nnd +h'e oF tf-n i>i-ofrio ip|. if rtvo-ht <on J tl . bom dislike for pnMic'fv and f.olkinc !)bo»+, hinrcolf. To an inTerview<»V, j, «. €o?l..» n> ; \ s -; a t or ] u , tins proved himself a success. "