N.Z. AVIATRIX.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 413, 21 April 1937, Page 7

N.Z. AVIATRIX.

THE HARMON TROPHY. Honour for Jean Batten. Sydney, April 15. During the pal t week Miss Jean Batten, New Zealand’s famous axia- • rix, who is staying in Sydney jtml no . ', was officially informed th..nt she has b en awarded the Harmon Trophy for 1936. This trophy it awarded by the Interna.ional League of Aii men, which has its headquarters at Peris, and every year allots valuable prizes to aviators, m.n and women, lor flights of exceptional merit. The prizes are allocated by an international vote and each tropLy is accompani d by a gold medal donated by the King of ithe Belgians, who is president of the league, The winner of the Harmon Trophy is formally acknowledged as “.h? world’s great-?s-t airwoman,” at least for the time being, and Miss Batten’s success should be a source of satisf ion and pride to the Dominion as 'vo .11 as to the intrepid flying girl herself. Miss Batten has now been awarded no less 'than four prizes for her flight® in 1936—'the o'her three being the Segrave Trophy, the Royal Aero Club’s Britannia Trophy, and the Johnson Memorial Silver Plaque The feat iwhich won Miss Batten the Harmon Trophy was h r solo flight from England to New Zealand. It should not. be forgot:en that -this is not the firs't time Miss Ra'.ten has been hailed as “the world’s greatest airwoman,” for in 1935 sh received the Harmon Trophy for her flight from England <to South America. These are distinctions of which Miss Batten and all her fello'V countrymen may well be proud, and the f >eli:ng in AusltraMa as well as in the Dominion is that she has well deserved those high honours. The Daily Telegraph certainly expressed the views of a large sec’ion of the Australian people when this we: k it assured Miss Batten that she “holds a warm place in the hearts of Australians” and commended her particularly not only for hr courage and skill but for her remarkable prac'ical ability and her capacity for doing everything “with a maximum of efficiency and a. minimum of fuss.”