AUCKLAND'S AIRPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 66, 19 March 1930, Page 12

AUCKLAND'S AIRPORT.

CENTRAL SITE WANTED.

CITY PROPOSALS CRITICISED. ATTITUDE AT PAPATOETOE. Both the sites under consideration by the Auckland City Council for airport development were criticised on several grounds by a deputation that waited on the Papatoetoe Town Board last evening. After hearing the deputation the board decided to submit to the City Council the importance of considering airport development from a national, rather than a municipal, viewpoint; and also to seek the intervention of the Government. Colonel S. J. E. Closey, president of the Papatoetoe Welfare League, who headed the deputation, stated that the fites in question were so far from the i-feCtled areas that they would fail to satisfy the requirements of rapid aerial transport services with the South. The areas at Pollen Island, off the Avondalc waterfront, and at Point England, on the Tamaki River, were both subject to ground lists whiqh would bo an additional handicap. In other countries airports w r ere located on the main lines of travel, continued Colonel Closey, and were readily accessible. Geographically the natural site for an airport for the Auckland districts was in the southern suburbs, in the vicinity of Otahuhu. As an indication of this, he said three arterial roads and two railway lines met at Otahuhu, 1 and.lie s' ,rv that the site of 190 acres: at Mangere crossing to be vacated by the Otahuhu Trotting Club would be highly suitable for airport purposes.