The Sun SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1928 THE SIN OF AIR ACEDIA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 1 September 1928, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1928 THE SIN OF AIR ACEDIA

f ET Aucklanders turn from the farce of mourning for their city’s sins and the death of common sense and look to the ample sky over New Zealand. There, as far as their alert vision may go, they will not see the famous Australian airmen whose winged craft symbolises an emblematic constellation. We see Kingsford Smith and his staunch comrades because human sight is not the eagle’s vision. The flying Southern Cross must direct an albatross course over the Tasman Sea to the beautiful plains of Canterbury. After conquering all the hazards of the air above a “niuekle sea” it must soar ten thousand feet near its goal to clear the noble Alps which rampart the wild West Coast of the South Island and then slope gracefully down to a level haven alive and quick in all the needs of pioneering rovers of the heavens. As for this laggard province, it is no better than the view that first met the questing eye of Noah’s dove; there is no place on which to rest the soles of its feet.

Two hundred thousand Aucklanders alone would like to see the gallant adventurers who already have spanned the Pacific (one does not forget the two American specialists who first gave the Southern Cross eyes and ears with which to find the green isles in a mighty ocean and hear and keep in constant touch with the living world), crossed and recrossed their own wide island continent, and soon, under a moon near to fullness with a friendly light, will he on their high way to this appreciative country. These intrepid blazers of the air-track between Australia and New Zealand may not come to Auckland for a genial welcome because Auckland does not possess a landing ground suited to the needs of a trans-ocean airplane.

Tims the sins of Auckland include the sin of air acedia. .It must confess torpor in this air age of tremendous achievement. The supreme dairy farm of the Dominion must cry with a poet’s sorrow: paddocks, paddocks everywhere, and not a field for Smith! The joy of marking- the anticipated accomplishment of a pioneer flight across the Tasman Sea must he taken imaginatively by the people of New Zealand’s greatest city. The real enjoyment of triumph must be only the experience of the inhabitants of the delightful village of Christchurch. It is almost as pathetic as the artificial grief over Auckland’s sins last evening to note the appeal of Major Ij. M. Isitt, of the New Zealand Air Force, to Auckland landowners for the use of an ample paddock to serve as a landing-ground for the Southern Cross. The Dominion airman has made an extensive search for a suitable field within a radius of 25 miles round the city, but could not find an adequate area. lie is prepared to organise the labour necessary for preparing the ground, so that Captain Kingsford Smith, Lieutenant Ulm and their comrades, including an expert New Zealand wireless telegraphist, may visit Auckland and enjoy the hospitable plaudits and friendliness of a multitude that would like to do honour to famous heroes of the air.

What is the Mayor of Auckland going to do about Major Isitt’s appeal? The city has been represented very poorly in the whole enterprise, the leading citizen having been content apparently with the issue of a cordial invitation to the Australian airmen to come this way. Municipal officials also practise the sin of acedia. It is rather late in the day now to seek a landing-ground, but if there be time to spare, every effort possible should be made to secure one and make it ready for a triumphant visit from the Southern Cross and, incidentally, for a display of enterprise which would stimulate interest in aviation.

It is no idle dream of visionaries to visualise the day of air transport in Hew .Zealand, and-between this country and Australia. Enterprising men abroad are ready now to inaugurate a trans-ocean service in this part of the world. There is confident talk of the time when great airships will leave Auckland for the alluring isles of the Pacific. In Australia the Federal Government is negotiating a contract with an airtransport company for the establishment of mail and passenger services, involving a charge of about 3Jd a mile, not much dearer than the cost of a first-section ride on an Auckland tram. But all that belongs to the near future. To-morrow, Aucklanders will have to think about the arrival of the Southern Cross in New Zealand. Let us mourn in sackcloth rather than in scarlet robes for one of Auckland’s seven sins.