AVIATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1918, Page 4

AVIATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE YEAR'S PROGRESS IN

CANTERBURY

A review of the closing year would not be complete (says the Christchurch “Star”) without-a tribute to the fotfnders ol the Canterbury Aviation School, which lias in a few months of training sent over twenty pilots to reinforce the air on the Allied battlefront.

The history of the company is hardly a year old. Floated by a body of citizens as a means of helping to win the war, it surmounted the heartbreaking delays of obtaining aeroplanes and engines, and laid out the now well-known aerodrome at Sockburn, where the first flights were made only last June by the newly-arrived instructor, Mr C. M. Hill/ Since then, the actual training of candidates for the Royal Flying Corps has been so steady that before Christmas twenty-cue pupils had obtained their pilot's certificates, and the school had a waiting list that taxed the services of two instructors. The school has received the recognition of the War Office and of the Royal Flying Corps, and has received valuable assistance from the Government and the High Commissioner. The Fleet at Sockburn has grown rapidly, and by the end of the year ihere should be seven aeroplanes in commission. The construction of machines, in fact, may yet assume the proportions of an industry. Meanwhile the first consideration has been the training of pupils, and the students’ quarters on the grounds have already been extended once to meet the increased number of pupils in training at one time. The flying school has been started under happy auspices, and it marks a piece of patriotic enterprise which must have an important influence on the commercial standing of Christchurch after the war.