HEADING FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 21

HEADING FOR NEW ZEALAND.

A PIONEER AVIATBIX. ME?. MAURICE HEWLETT'S VISIT.. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, January 12. Chi her wav to Australia and New Zeu. land, expecting to arrive at Wellington at the end of February, Mrs. Maurice Hewlett. an ultra-modern woman, j despite her grey hairs, grown children, and the dignity of being the widow of i the eminent" English stylist and novelist,! renewed acquaintanceship with a bevy j oi friends in San Francisco. A direct, independent and petite per- j Bonage, who wears short skirts, smokes | a casual cigarette, and stands firmly on j her two small feet, she runs a great j business, flies her own aeroplane, and i jaunts around the world in search of j pleasure and adventure most informally.! and usually alone. But everywhere she \ goes, she said in San Francisco, she finds ! friends or makes new ones, equally | delightful and stimulating from her , point of view. Her world jauntings brought her to, San Francisco on January 9, when she j arrived in the Western American metropolis on the Johnson liner Santos, after a six weeks' trip across the Atlantic from Antwerp through the Panama ("anal and up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. Here she walked into the arms of old friends who mapped out a busy fortnicht for her in the interim of her arrival and sailing for the South Sea T=lands and New Zealand and Aus tralia. Though fiir many years Mrs. Hewlett was one of the <rreat hostesses of liter ! ary London, it is not so much amon? her friend- alone —the famous figures v , the world of letters —that she likes to talk, hut rather of her own exploits flan aviatriv nnd world traveller. First Woman Pilot. She was the very first woman in the whole world to own her own aeroplane and be her own pilot. In fact her pilot license was No. 97 on the list of licenses issued in England. "I went to a meet at Blackford in 1910 and I knew at once that I wanted to fly, not just to go up with someone else but to own my own 'plane and fly on my own account.'' she related after lun'heon as she chatted with interviewers ■ at the Woman's City Club in San Francisco, i

I suppose my friends thought it was { astonishing. But that did not matter j to me, and my husband was most svrapathetic. So I bought a Farman 'plane and went to Camp d'Chalons, in France. j and learned to fiy. _ "When I returned to England I established a flying school at Brooklands and began the manufacture of aeroplanes. During the war my company turned out fifteen planes a week and employed about 600 people. And by the way, half of them were women. I found women were capable of becoming quite as expert mechanics as men, and as the war drew upon our trained men I constantly diluted our mechanical force with women. It is all nonsense to think women have no ability with machinery." Mrs. Hewlett taught her own son, F. E. T. Hewlett, to tly. and during the entire four years of the war he wa* in action with the British Air Force. The energetic little Engl is:', woman admitted that she had nev<jr herself had a serious accident while in the air. ehe put in some very, very terrible daye ; just at the holiday season in 1914. when j her son during the Coxlnven raid was i forced down into the North Sea by : engine trouble and was missing for a 1 week. He wa< eventually picked up by j a Dutch boat and landed at Ymuiden. Holland, on January 1. 1013, and sub- ! eequently returned to his own country. I She stated that he is now commanding ! officer at the Calirdiott seaplane station, j Flew Across Europe. | Not only is Mr<s. Hewlett famous as a flying instructor, aeroplane builder and i pilot, but she also holds a record as i , having been the first through passenger from Belgrade to Paris. a j journey which practically spans Europe. Her flying trip was thirteen hours. This epochal journey was made two years ago. Though he never learned to fiy. Mrs. , Hewlett's novelist husband shared her j enthusiasm for aviatoin and fre- : 1 quently went up with her. Site in turn shared his literary enthusiasm, and it I was to her he dedicated his mcn-t famous ! book, "Forest Lovers.'' Among other • distinguished books were "The Stooping! | Lady" and •'ltalian Short Tales."'