DOMINION DEFENCES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 245, 30 July 1935, Page 5

DOMINION DEFENCES

v PROGRESS OF SCHEMES REVIEWED. ENCOURAGING CIVIL AVIATION. (Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, July. 29. The progress of schemes for tlie modernisation of New Zealand’s doi'ences was referred to by the Minisiei for Defence (the Hon. J. G. CobDe; to-day. With maintenance of tlie present pace of the work, Mr Cobbe said, it would not be long before all schemes, embracing both land and air defences, were completed. “The aim is to improve steadily the conditions of service in the territorial force,” said the Minister, “and to make still closer the existing liaison with Great Britain and Australia on defence questions. Steps have been taken during the last two years to arrange for a jperiodical interchange of officers between New Zealand and Australia, and toi resume the practice of sending New Zealand military cadets to the Royal Military College, Sydney, for training. Furthermore, New Zealand is new obtaining from the Commonwealth Government such military material and stores as the Australian Munitions Department is in a position to supply. . . “A close liaison is also maintained between the Defence Department and the War Office and the Air Ministry in Britain. Several officers of the New Zealand Permanent Forces are undergoing staff and regimental training in Britain.”

Mr Cob be also referred to the encouragement of civil aviation in the Dominion ,by the subsidising of approved aero clubs on a basis of the number of young pilots trained, and by making aeroplanes available on loan free of charge. There were at present 10 such clubs, with a total membership of about 2500. A further scheme was the establishment of a chain of landing grounds and aerodromes throughout the Dominion, built by relief labour subsidised by the Unemployment Board. Of 112 landing grounds and aerodromes originally contemplated, work on 24 was in progress, and operations on another 26 would be begun shortly.