WHAT IS A 'PLANE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 220, 16 September 1932, Page 5

WHAT IS A 'PLANE?

AERO CLUB -CHARGES. SUNDAY TRADING ALLEGED. "ABSURD," SAYS MAGISTRATE. "We want to encourage eir-minded-nees as much as possible, and in many cases Sunday is the only possible day on which young people can go up. lam certainly not going to convict," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court this morning, when a series of charges against officers of the Auckland Aero Club came before him. E. B. Boucher, the president, and L. W. Swan, secretary, were charged on two counts with keeping a place open on a Sunday for the purpose of transacting business, and D. M. Allan, flight instructor, answered two charges of working at his trade on a Sunday. The charges were brought under the Police Offences Act. Detective Sergeant McHugh said that, following complaints to the police, a constable visited the aerodrome on August 14 and found that aeroplanes were plying for hire. Mr. Hunt: Why should they not ply for hire on a Sunday? Taxis do, buses do, trains do. What other day could these people fly? Counsel for the Aero Club said that Allan was the flight instructor and passenger pilot. The club did not run a business. • It certainly sold flights to the public, but the club was educating the public in air-mindedness. Counsel quoted a Wanganui case in which the magistrate held that an aeroplane was a carriage and came within the exemptions under the Act. "The whole thing is absurd," said Mr. Hunt. "I can get in a taxi or a bus and ride round the waterfront, but I can't ride over it in an aeroplane."