Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1934. AIR MAIL SERVICE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 190, 25 May 1934, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1934. AIR MAIL SERVICE.

..Though solo flights by women between Britain and Australia have lost their novelty, the performance of Miss Jean Batten in reducing Mrs Mollison's record by four days is a noteworthy one, the more interesting to the people of this Dominion because it was achieved by a young nativeborn New Zealander. The courage and pertinacity displayed by Miss Batten, who was undeterred by two crashes that might have caused her, justifiably, to abandon her project, are most praiseworthy. They show thai amid all the distracting conditions of twentieth century life, the rising generation is capable of feats on an equality with those of their forebears who in the broad field extended Britain's trade and founded the Empire and who in the narrower sphere overcame trials and difficulties in laying the foundations of the prosperity of this Dominion. On the strictly practical side of the undertaking the High Commissioner has welcomed the feat as bringing nearer the day when air mails from Britain will reach New Zealand in eight days. This is not idle imagining, but a forecast that has the authority of present > achievement behind it. Already there is within an ace of completion a service by which mails will be carried from Britain to Australian in fourteen days, a transit that ten years ago would have been considered as highly improbable. New Zealand has a definite interest in the enterprise. The Government is paying a subsidy of £SOOO a year toward the service. £3OOO .accruing to the United Kingdom and £2OOO. to the Commonwealth Exchequer When shipping schedules suit, English mails for the Dominion will be speeded up very substantially. But how long will mails arriving via Australia be dependent upon steamers? A regular lasman air service may still be deemed a somewhat remote possibility, but in light of the events of the last four years one must hesitate to fix a limit to the rate of further development of air services. The Tasman crossing is a heavier challenge than any hnk on the route to Australia but Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Fhght-Lieutenan Ulrr/ have recently demonstrated that its problems are not as far beyond mastery as they were thought to be two years ago.