Tardy in the Air

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 247, 9 January 1928, Page 8

Tardy in the Air

NEW ZEALAND BACKWARD

Government’s Attitude

WHILE New Zealand flying men are in Australia awaiting an opportunity for a pioneer hop across the Tasman Sea, the four sea-going ships of the New Zealand Naval Division are snugly berthed at Devonport. Though there are a number of merchant ships at present in the Tasman, the naval craft would be helpful if a patrol ■were necessary. Their retention in port, presumably through motives of economy, is typical of the Government s attitude toward aviation.

TP Lieutenant Moncrieff and Lieut. Hood are successful in the flight, they will bring to New Zealand the honour of pioneering the air-track across the Tasman, but it will be a personal distinction. The New Zealand Government’s attitude has, as usual, been strictly negative. A friendly benediction, a flag at the mast on every post office, and whatever information the Dominion Weather Bureau can furnish — these constitute the aid the intrepid aviators are receiving from the Government. If New Zealand had been really generous in its attitude toward flights and

flying men, the Tasman venture would by now have been a success of the past. Ever since the war there have been gallant New Zealand pilots anxious to attempt the trip, and only hindered by the lack of finance or a suitable machine. Several years ago a New Zealander named Coates, formerly a flight-lieutenant with the Royal Naval Air Service, wrote to the Government asking for official approval of an attempt to fly the Tasman. The reply was a chilly sample of official discouragement. Should Moncrieff and his associate make the -New Zealand coast, they will do more to stimulate aviation than all the lukewarm effort that the Government has spread over years, and their achievement will illuminate the tardiness of aerial progress in the Dominion. Auckland has a direct interest in the advance of aviation, for it was here that the Walsh brothers, in the early

years of the war, started the first New Zealand aviation school. Planes over the city were a much commoner sight then than now, when to children, and even grown-ups, au airplane is still a novelty. It was thought that a tangible advance had been made when land was purchased for the Hobsonvi 11 e Airdrome, but the chosen locality is still strictly rural, and in the vote for outlav during the current year there is no provision for expenditure to improve it. Auckland waited in pleased expectancy for the flight made by Captain Ivan Findlay in August. Hopes were deferred, at the outset, by a mishap at Blenheim, and were disappointed completely when the machine did not come nearer the city than its landingground at Mangere. As a spectacular intimation I hat the Auckland taxpayers had interests in an air force, that flight was a failure. Later a more practical demonstration was the selection of young Aucklanders among a group of cadets chosen to undergo trainng, as Air Force recruits, at the Wigram Airdrome at Christchurch. By observers of New Zealand’s air progress this is considered the best contribution y.J made toward the development of aviation. Even so, the greatest need of aviation in the Dominion is not men, but machines. Captain Right and Lieutenants Hood and Moncrieff are examples of the proficient pilots scattered throughout New Zealand in civil engagements. SIXTEEN AIRPLANES There are scores, if not hundreds, of men just as capable, but the Government’s airworthy machines are just sixteen in number. And in the last report on air defence it was admitted that only a few of the machines were really sound, and that the cost of keeping the others in good condition was becoming increasingly embarrassing. With the New Zealand Air Force in these straits the amount granted this year for £he purchase of planes is £19,400, a sum that can harly effect any appreciable improvement. The total appropriation for air development in the current year is barely £30,000, and there Is no allowance whatever for the purchase of seaplanes, the type of machine in which Auckland is naturally most Interested. Unhappily, but for such spasmodic efforts as those made by the Tasman fliers, the Government’s gait has set the pace for civil aviation. In New Zealand an airplane is still a strange craft, to be regarded with wonder by children, awe by adults, and positive horror by superstitious natives. Australia provides a contrast. Across the Tasman, where the New Zealand flying men are awaiting a chance to fly to their own country, privatelyowned air services run daily in Victoria, with even more precision than the motor services In New Zealand, and they have-flown thousands of miles without serious accident.