THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1947. A SOUTH ISLAND AIRPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26629, 27 November 1947, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1947. A SOUTH ISLAND AIRPORT

Those organisations in the South Island which had been led to believe that some progress was being made in the investigation of an overseas air service to the South Island will find little comfort in the. statement to the Daily Times by the Minister of Civil Aviation which is printed in our news columns to-day. It is an unconvincing statement and the only conclusion that can be drawn from a penisal of it is that little or nothing has been done towards satisfying the South Island’s, aspirations for an international airport. Nor, would it seem, is anything likely to be done for some time to come. The most significant admission in Mr Jones’s statement, however, is-that no further action has been taken to invite an independent expert to comment and advise on land and marine airports in the Dominion, The offer by Lord Nathan of Churt to make available the services of Mr Peter Masefield, Director-general of Projects and Long Term Planning at the British Ministry of Civil Aviation, is apparently to be taken no further. Mr Masefield, have modestly deprecated his own competence to advise the New Zealand Government on matters pertaining to marine and land airports, but if he, as the expert responsible for planning the whole future of British civil aviation, is not qualified to speak authoritatively on such questions, who else in the aviation world would be? The reason that Mr Masefield’s services are not being more as-, siduously sought lies, perhaps, in this part of Mr Jones’s statement: “A large sum is involved in the development of a land aerodrome to meet the Standards required of an international airport.” The statement suggests that the Government is committed to the principle of a land airport and would be embarrassed if Mr Masefield, who considers that marine aircrdft have an important place in'the future of aviation, were to recommend the inauguration of services employing marine airports. If such a scheme were proved practicable, all the objections based on the score of expense which Mr Jones has raised to the establishment of new international aerodromes would immediately be /nullified. Flying boats are already in operation across the Tasman and other, more modern, types are on order. The provision of bases at Wellington and Dunedin that would enable these machines to operate from Melbourne, or Sydney to the various New Zealand ports could be carried out at a very low cost, and this could be done almost immediately. A good deal of nonsense has been spoken from time to time of the possibility of an early commencement of a service between Melbourne and the South Island with huge modern airliners, but the obstacles to these airy schemes are precisely those mentioned by Mr Jones—economic ones. No such service could be commenced until aerodromes conforming with ICAO specifications were laid down, and the cost of building a fully equipped international airport in New Zealand to-day would probably be considerably more than £ 1,000,000. The Government, naturally, has no particular desire to subsidise private airline operators to such an extent, but it cannot be excused if it fails to have investigated thb possibility of. utilising natural bases in an extension of an international air service in s which it holds a directing interest.