BIG AREA SURVEYED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 427, 7 May 1937, Page 6

BIG AREA SURVEYED

MILITARY AERODROME Government Reticence Press Association —Copyright. Auckland, May 6. Surveys commenced by the Public Works Department ‘about three months ago in the area between Ku. meu and Riverhead with a view, it is believed, to selecting a site for a military aerodrome supplementary to the Royal New Zealand Air Force base at Hobsonville have been completed. Farmers whose land is in the area surveyed are eagerly awaiting an announcement by the Minister of Defence, Hon. F. Jones, and the offers for the properties in whole or in part that are expected to follow if it is decided to construct an aerodrome. Official reticence has been an outstanding feature of the survey. The staff engaged professed ignorance of the reason behind their activities, and residents, who naturally were interested in the work, were informed that it was a public works survey. A number of farmers whose land was included in the survey communicated with various Government departments and w-ere- advised thafi nothing would be decided until the survey had been completed, but that an announcement would follow shortly afterward. The area surveyed is of approximately 600 acres and is, roughly, square. It is mostly flat land, and by air-line is only about five miles from Hobsonville. Practically the whole of the land of two or three owners it' included, and there are portions of the property of a number of other farmers. The survey is believed to be part of a plan evolved by Wing-Commander

the Hon. R. F. Cochrane, chief of the air staff, for the extension and development of aii\ defence in New Zealand. It is understood the plan is of a most extensive nature, involving the provision of many more aerodromes than now exist.