“N.Z. Not Immune From Air Attack”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 464, 20 September 1928, Page 10

“N.Z. Not Immune From Air Attack”

WHAT FLIGHT HAS SHOWN AERO CLUB’S DINNER TO AIRMEN ‘•Kingsford Smith and his associates have shown us that we are no longer immune from attack by air,” said Mr. H. T. Merritt, chairman of the Auckland Aero Club Committee, at the dinner given in honour of the Southern Cross flyers at the Grand Hotel last evening. “It is up to aero clubs to train airmen so that Netv Zealand, in time of need, will have a body of qualified pilots to fall back upon,” he continued. “Such an aerial reserve must be the product of the people. It cannot be done except through civil aviation.” The Auckland Club, he pointed out, has already about 300 members, including 56 prospective flying pupils. The chairman’s appeal to the public of Auckland to “get behind” the Aero Club, and subscribe to the pur chase of a machine to be called the “Southern Cross Gift Plane,” was •promptly answered. Flight-Lieutenant C. T. P. Ulm handed a cheque for £2l to the club's president, Mr. Robert Burns, as the Tasman flyers’ contribution. “They have proved that an airplane can go anywhere under any conditions,” said the club captain, Major Keith Caldwell. In the words of the toast of the Royal Flying Corps, he wished them all “Happy Landings.” “Aero clubs, as has been proved in Australia, are the foundation and back bone of flying in any country,”’ said Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith, in acknowledging the welcome extended by the president of the club, Mr. Robert Burns, who presided. He urged Auckland to greater aerial achievement, quoting as an instance the progress that Blenheim, with a population of only 5,000, had already made. Kingsford Smith, in thanking the club for its hospitality, delivered the greetings of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Aero Clubs, which he assured his hearers were particularly interested in New Zealand.