PLANE TRASPORT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 574, 4 July 1933, Page 7

PLANE TRASPORT

NEW LINES LINK TWO MINING CAMPS. Yaiicpuver, Saturday. Two Fox Moth biplanes have heen despatched necently to Oanada toj do work of ia similar kind in serving rich mining areas, though the country does not present the peculiarities of the New Guinea route. In Canada and N"ew Guinea equally, however, the npronlane reigns supreme and unehal-

lenged as a m'eans of transport. Year hy. year a Vreat mining industry is being built up in the Dominion, especially in northern Quehec and in parts of Lake Ontario, which are the regions where tbe new light 'planes will be emp'loyed. There is much activity in prospecting, the launching of new mining operations and the working of those already in full production.. Most of these sources of mineral wealth lie far from the nearest rail- \ head. This terrain is diificult and at bertain times of year impassahle .by ground vehicles. The flying machine is, in cold fact, the only practical means of transport. Passengers 011 these air services constitute an important part of the loads airborne, but the oarriage of freight is still more vital to the efficient running of the mines. As in New Guinea, the goods earried are most diverse. Fresh vegetables, eggs, dynamite, window iglass, cooking stoves, machinery, sides of beef and many other kinds of merchandise and provisions are transported. The average load is two passengers or 400 pounds weight of freight. Consequently the 300 or 400 h.p. American aerop'lanes which up to th'e present have done most of this, are hopelessly "uneconomic" unless extremely high rates are charged and Canadian Airways have shown sound business instinct in changing over to smaller 130 h'.p. craft such as the Fox Moth. In summer the :a.eroplanes will be operated as seaplanes; in the severe Canadian winter the floats will be displaced by skis and flown on and off the frozen surfaces of the same lakes which will provide them with natural aerodromes in the summer. One machine will he based at Rouyn, "jumping off" point for one of the largest and most productive mining regions in northern Quehec; the other, from Chapleau, a town located in Ontario east of Lake Superior, will serve a district which has come into prominence as a source of mineral wealth during the last twelve months. Choice of British light aeroplanes for work in conditions differing so nadically as in tropical New Guinea and Canada, where the temperature for months on end may remain far below freezing point, is sufficient evidence of their suitability for use anywhere in the world and of the high degree of confidence reposed in their structural strength, endunance and dependahility. Aircraft such as these axe not likely to fiall short of the plans made hy the most exacting private flyer.