WHO OWNS THE AIR?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 142, 24 September 1910, Page 4

WHO OWNS THE AIR?

Now that aviators and flying machines are so much in evidence, the question of air-ownership is forced on public attention. Is the airship to be allowed to fly over "my land and through "my" air at will? The man who says he owns the land—.that is, the surface of the land—claims all beneath it down to Hades, we suppose. Then it of course follows that he also owns all above it, right up to—well, we can't use the word Heaven, in this connection—say Mars. If the lord of the surface of the earth says that no one shall, undermine his territory without paying tribute, he may also .claim that no one shall overshadow his land without paying for the privilege. Then we shall go a bit further and monopolise in some way or another the light of the sun also, and there will be nothing left to the man who is neither a landlord, nor an airlord, nor a lord of any other natural element but to pay tribute to the monopolists for the rilght to live and move and breathe. Clever men—lawyers, ior instance—will be able to bring forward sound logic to prove that if a man owns the land he also owns all that is beneath it. The trouble is in that little word "if"—if he owns the land. This sets us thinking that perhaps after all the matter of land ownership is not, or should npt be, as absolute as some seem to' regard it; and investigation of this question of "who own? the air?" may lead to,a better view of things in general as regards the kindly gifts of Mature. In the meantime we would advise the Premier to insert a clause—many clauses may be heeded—to define the rights of the people to the use of the air for all and any purpose. Perhaps' if this question were brought before the House it would throw light on the now vexed discussions of freehold or leasehold; it might show the mistake that has been made hitherto in allowing the natural elements to foe monopolised. We do not claim originality in calling attention-to his matter, for at an international conference in Paris recently the ownership of th,e air was a subject , for discussion, and litie. decision arrived at was that there were "no proprietary rights in the air."