THE AIR AGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 102, 2 May 1929, Page 17

THE AIR AGE.

PROGRESS OF TRANSPORT. DEVELOPMENT 5 ABROAD. WHAT OF NEW ZEALAND? (By DIOGENES.) Transportation is the foundation-stone of progress, and is very closely allied to tie cost of living problem. Facilities for transport are constantly clanging and - always improving. Within a few short years past the steam engine replaced the horse, and a better engine took the place of the first one, until we have now that powerful machine which will haul thousands of tons over the Rocky Mountains. The old hand brake has passed into history, and the Westinghouse has taken its place. The old-fashioned bone-shaker bike has gone, superseded by the safety and the motor bike. Trams drawn by horses are a memory, and electricity has come to stay. The principle adopted in countries of great spaces, such, as Canada and the United States, was to build a railway, and settlement would follow. As a natural consequence the land adjacent to the railway on both sides for long distances was settled, and the back country was without adequate means of transport. Then came the demand for branch lines, and these were built as population increased. The further one got from the main line the higher became the freight charges. Then " came the demand for roads from the branch lines, until the various methods of transportation became a source of heavy expense to be charged against the product carried, all of which had to be passed on to the consumer, increasing the cost of living. Aerial Mail Services.

Quite recently a, new problem has arisen, not contemplated a few years ago, which is likely to revolutionise the whole system of transport. This is- "transport by air." The Imperial air service from England to the Continent has already claimed a big share of the passenger traffic, and it is steadily growing. Thousands of passengers have been carried without the loes of a life. The United States has made great strides in the development of the air services for the transport of mails. In 1928 the postage rate bv air was cut to 2M per ounce. On the day the rate was inaugurated the volume of mail carried by air southward from New York increased 300 per cent, and twice the normal quantity was carried out of Philadelphia. A world record was established by Des Moines, from which city 45,000 pieces of mail were dispatched in a single day. On one day a special air mail shipment amounting to ten tons, or 350,000 mailing pieces, left Lansing, "Mirhign-nj for Chicago. Air mail has already ceased to be spectacular"; or a novelty. Business men recognise its advantages over the slower steam method, and are employing-it as an efficient aid in competitive business. Mail can now be sent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes in 15 hours, and from the Gulf to the North Atlantic in 24 hours, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 31 hours, at a saving of about one-third the time consumed by former means of transport. All this is done at a rate for each letter that is less than half the price of an ordinary special delivery postage stamp. In the United States there is an organised air transport, with fleets of planes operating over fixed routes on schedule, and carrying mail and express parcels. Great expansion is now under way. A year ago there were 21 transport companies operating over 9669 miles of air highways. To-day there are 38 companies, with 16,000 miles of route. Thirty new companies are now being promoted, which will cover an additional 5000 miles. The Government is lighting the airways for night flying. About 10,000 miles of routes have been lighted, and 3000 more are to be lighted this year. Railways Co-operating. Railway magnates are not- fighting ftviation; on the contrary, they are becoming •directors in air transport companies, and wherever possible they arejoining 'with air transport in providing a joint 'plane and train service. Some

si f deSl S^ amShip com P*nies are con-ow-n air of running their bankiTur - tllat at leasfc a h ™dred takin-° P art iT'th^ gr °- I ? S are now " <= rt 111 tne reorjramsinT of t'ip SEE*, flying indus!r -- - concenf S? of established *till Shi are bu^in ? control, and var on n aCquirin - an interest in oftSp\ f aniSatlonS - Tlle confidence factiirprc equals that of the rnanu- ' There are men who have U ° ite<l St » te ofc , s 1600 commercial moo eS i wer ® huilt by 30 companies. In wptp C f 4000 com mercial machines were turned out by 140 plants. So as to attract business, it is contemplated to bmld machines that will travel 150 miles an hour, and start one of these hour meS Wltil mail an<i i re ight every A Lesson for New Zealand. ' What is being done in the United States should be carefully studied by he !New Zealand Government. Banking houses are controlling some of the most important flying routes in the States, une of the big combinations is preparing to operate a 'plane and train service from the Atlantic to the Pacific, carrypassengers over the mountains bv trainband flying them across the plains The !New Zealand Government, being the owner of railroads, is deeply interested m the problem of transportation. Only recently the bus has made inroads on the railway business, and also on the shipping business. What will happen when the air routes are developed. We read of a machine leaving Christchurch after breakfast and the occupants eating dinner the same day in Auckland, after a journey of ten hours or so, instead of 36 hours. Would it not be advisable for the Government to consider the question of utilising the air routes rather than incur the expense attached to the building of railways, which hold out small prospects cf profit for many years to come? Heavy traffic can go by road, but the lighter traffic, such as express mails and passengers, could be handled to advantage in. the air. These are matters, in the light of what is going on in other places, which demand very serious consideration.