“FLYING MAD"

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 384, 19 June 1928, Page 13

“FLYING MAD"

AUSTRALIAN ENTHUSIASM AUCKLANDER’S IMPRESSIONS “Australia is flying mad at the moment.” This is the impression brought back by Mr. Ernest Shatz, of Auckland, who returned by the Marama from an extended business trip. “There are tremendous schools for flying in Australia and everybody is talking about flights and airplanes,” he continued. Mr. Shatz was in Sydney when the Southern Cross arrived there from Brisbane after her historic flight across the Pacific, and he said that the enthusiasm was amazing. “It was a wonderful sight to see the Southern Cross circling over Sydney,” said Mr. Shatz, “and to see the small Moth planes which went out to meet her. The Southern Cross is a huge machine, bigger than anything we have ever seen here.” While in Melbourne, Mr. Shatz met Mr. Bert Hinkler, who, he says, does not approve of “stunt” flying and for that reason will not cross the Tasman. Hinkler intends to fly back to England the way he came. When Mr. Shatz left Sydney everyone was talking about the KingsfordSmith flight across to New Zealand, which is a certainty. He says that there should be no difficulty about the trans-Tasman flight with a machine the size of the Southern Cross. Business is beginning to recover in Australia, said Mr. Shatz, but Sydney and Melbourne are deadly dull at present. The big departmental stores are over-stocked and Sydney has overbuilt. Western Australia, he says, is the most promising State, as the Government is givng every facility to those who wish to go on the land. The inviting prospects have given everybody encouragement, with the result that the State is showing great progress.