AERO CLUB’S NEED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 701, 28 June 1929, Page 14

AERO CLUB’S NEED

PRESENT AIRDROME IS INADEQUATE

WELLINGTON’S EXAMPLE “The least that we should ask for is that the City Council and other authorities should take the question in hand and do what other authorities are doing throughout the Dominion.” This Mr. H. T. Merritt, ■who presided at the annual general meeting of the Auckland Aero Club last evening, suggested as a means of remedying the disabilities under which the club was working at its present airdrome at Mangere, when moving the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet, recently published in The Sun. The present drome had proved inadequate for the needs of the club, he said. It had filled a long felt want, and the club had to thank Mr. Mcßae Peacock for the use of his land. _ Mr. Merritt referred to the activities of the municipal authorities in Dunedin, and also in Wellington, where the City Council, he said, was providing a drome for the club free of cost. He said the question of finding a new airdrome was the most important the club had to face. He thought that an appeal should be made to the municipality and to the Auckland Harbour Board. Accessibility to the city is most important, and he suggested that the City Council and Harbour Board could set up a joint committee with the Aero Club to face the problem of providing a new drome. “FOREMOST IN DOMINION” Mr. Merritt recalled the first meeting, held last year. He remembered the trepidation and hesitation of the committee when the club was formed. Many pitfalls were evident from the outset, but he thought that they might have been over-emphasised. “Today all the pitfalls seem to have been left behind, and the Auckland Aero Club has its feet firmly placed on the road to the pinnacle of success,” he said. “It can claim to be the foremost aero club in the Dominion.” There was a total of 67 pupil members, which exceeded by far the resources of the club to give them adequate instruction. He was afraid that more disappointment was in store for the pupils in the future, but many of the difficulties would be overcome. “We have been flying since February 28, and as yet have not had a single mishap to either passenger or plane,” he said. “This reflects great credit on the officers who have had charge of the club’s planes.” The question of providing a new plane would also have to be faced, Mr. Merritt said. The Government had decided that any plane provided by a club should be subsidised by a Government plane, but the Government had refused to recognise the club’s gift plane as being a plane provided by the club. Saying that he was glad to have been associated, even in a small way, with the beginning of the Auckland Aero Club, Mr. E. C. Huie, a vicepresident, seconded the motion to adopt the annual report. Commercial aviation had not made very great progress in the Dominion as yet, he said, but in the future it would play a big part in communication between the provinces of New Zealand. It was possible that pilots of the aero clubs might lie associated with the Defence Forces. He did not see why aero club members should not be voluntary members of the Air Force, and thus qualify for Government support and assistance. The following officers -were elected: —President, Mr. Robert Burns; vice-presidents. Sir George Fowlds, Sir James Gunson, and Messrs. J. Alexander, A. S. Bankart, A. Court, E. Davis, F. Earl, G. H. Fleming, G. A. Gribbin, E. C. Huie, H. Hayward, R. A. Laidlaw, C. Leys, Spencer Mason, H. T. Merritt, O. Nicholson, E. H. Northeroft, V. Walsh, W. R. Wilson, G. H. Wilson and W. Walsh; club captain, Captain J. Seabrook; committee, Captain E. Dickson, Captain D. Harkness, Captain W. S. R. Bloomfield, Messrs. H. T. Mertt, D. Mill, W. A. Boucher, F. B. Cadman, G. Henning and S. Mason; secretary and treasurer, Mr. L. W. Swan; honorary solicitor, Mr. S. Mason.