The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1911 THE AERIAL AGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 74, 18 September 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1911 THE AERIAL AGE.

When men began to fly and a large number of them fell out of the sky and were killed, there was an unusual accusation that John Bull was, as usual, behind the times. He did not adopt the "three plane standard" and watched without | great emotion the bursting of half a | dozen Zeppelins and the triumphs of Continental aviators. Naturally John Bull was raked fore and aft for his dilatoriness in Australia and New Zealand, where the butchers deliver mea,t' by aeroplane and where every clerk enters his oflice each day by the skylight. In Britain and on the Continent there have arisen men of unexamplod grit and courage who have never been deterred by the constant fatal'air. accidents from the pursuit of the science. The problem of absolute control is being solved by the thinkers of all countries, and even now tin; latest air machines have been able to make wonderful and sustained flights under the worst possible aerial conditions. In both the French and German army manoeuvres air scouts performed prodigies of reconnaissance unheard of two years ago and mi thought of a decade ago. Aerial navigation has already made if practically impossible for bodies of troops (o conceal themselves, and there is comfort in this to the advocates of peace, for the use of aeroplanes so increases the risks of war that two enemy powers might well hesitate to enter into conflict.' One of the most important phases of aerial advance, however, is that which has made it possible to carry mails through the air. Already the British Post Office has established an air mail service over a route of twenty miles between Windsor and London, an experiment that will probably lead to the establishment in the near future of a general aerial service It is interesting to contemplate the necessary changes that must take place in all countries where definite and regular air-services arc undertaken, for it will be essential that there shall be easily recognisable landing-places. When these become as numerous as railway stations the average country would not be recognisable to the people of the last generation. Up to the present most of the aviators have been adventurous men of means, but the general use of aviation in the public service must call into being a new professional class that will hecome as numerous as the chauffeur. We do not remember to have read of any reference being made to this modern mclhod of transit by any New Zealand politician. The possibilities of water power and wireless telegraphy have been appreciated, but as far as New Zealand is concerned aerial navigation does not exist. It is conceivable that the Taranaki farmer and hundreds of his fellowfarmers in the boggy back blocks of New Zealand would hail aerial travel development in this country with the greatest joy. To fly out of one's flood-bound seelion, to escape the intolerable roads, to miss the gluey hush tracks would be joy indeed. Everybody knows that Sir Joseph Ward has a cherished reputation for being an advanced postal administrator. Aeroplanes are not very expensive, and an air mail or two above some of the worst stretches would cheer the people up a lot. Westport recently reported that airships had been seen by

\ night in the vicinity of that town, hut it is evident that they have not returned to earth. Perhaps the non-arrival of these craft is the reason why the. authorities hesitate even to mention such a subject as aerial navigation. Per- , haps there isn't such a thing as aerial navigation and the cable-man has dreamed it all.