AIR SERVICES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1922, Page 8

AIR SERVICES.

EXPENDITURE WOULD BE PREMATURE. MR. MASSEY’S VIEW. Recent cablegrams have mentioned that the Imperial Government is disposing of the airships that had been retained for the suggested Imperial air services, the reason given being lack of response on the part of the Dominion Governments. Replying to a question on this subject, the Prime Minister said that he certainly could not recommend the New Zealand Parliament to provide a very large sum of money for experimental air services. The airships had made some wonderful journeys, but they had not yet reached the stage of development when regular communication between Britain and Australasia by &ir would be a practical proposal. The record of recent accidents was an answer to any claim of the kind. A fact to be remembered, Said Mr. Massey, was that an airship making five. journey from Britain to New Zealand or Australia could not have summer conditions on both sides of the world. The airships should prove their capacity to maintain services over shorter ' distances —-between Britain and Egypt, or Britain and India — before heavy expenditure on. round-the-world services was proposed. He was prepared to believe that aerial communication might be established throughout the Empire in years gome, but the time was not yet.