THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1909. AERIAL NAVIGATION LAW.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3083, 4 January 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1909. AERIAL NAVIGATION LAW.

The fact, as recently cabled, that "the legal aspect of aerial navigation" is about to come under consideration in Paris may be taken as the advent of one of the most perplexing questions that has ever came within the purview of either national or international law. The ownership of land gives a legal right extending downwards to the point at the earth's centre, where that of the man in possession of the antipodean allotment would be met with, and upwards through space "ad infinitum." If it was proved that a straight line perpendicular to the surface of a Masterton resident's back yard, by being produced, would intersect a particular portion of the planet Mars, our law courts, if appealed to, might have a difficulty in deciding that the Marsrnan residing there was not legally a trespasser on the earth man's property. The Sydney "Daily Telegraph" deals at con-

siderable length with the legal aspect of aerial navigation, and says that a man crossing over another's land in an airship is certainly a trespasser, just as he would be by tunnelling underneath it. When aerial transit becomes a regular thing, therefore, the landowners may claim to be paid for the right-of-way if "the legal aspect" of this navigation is not put on some different footing. But what footing can it bj put upon that will enable the man whose house is flown over by freighted air cars to get compensation for the risks of accident to which that will expose him? And if he is to be entitled to take toll, how is he going to collect it? Then there is the question of the ship sailing over the frontier at an altitude that will render its occupants exempt from the indignity of having their luggage turned out and | pried through by border Customs officials in search of contraband goods. It is certain that when the air 1 steamer becomes a regular medium of commerce between nation and nation, the policy of "keeping the money in the country" by the agency of tariffs will have to undergo some substantial modifications. Whether these problems are about to be tackled in Paris just now is not explained, but as soon as "the legal aspect of aerial navigation" comes up, they and hosts of others equally perplexing will have to be faced. The immediately important point about the cable, however, is the evidence it brings of the extent to which the evolution of the flying machine is approaching the practical stage, and the sinister significance it gives to the scientific statement made the other day, that it will soon be possible for Germany to transport an army of invasion to England through the air.