SUPREME PLUCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 252, 23 October 1936, Page 15

SUPREME PLUCK.

MISS BATTEN LAUDED. "IF I SHOULD ORASH —" LAST WORDS IN SYDNEY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October IT. It should hardly be necessary to assure New Zealanders that the news of Miss Jean Batten's safe arrival at Auckland was received with great enthusiasm over here. Her wonderful achievements had assured her a warm welcome in Australia, and what the people of Sydney saw of her during her short stay increased their admiration and intensified their hopes for her success. Modest, self-possessed, efficient and resourceful, she made a most gratifying impression not only upon the general public, who saw little of her, but also upon the aviators and experts at Mascot and Richmond, who were loud in praise of her thoroughness, her self-reliance and her skill.

It is true that several of our bestknown flying men would have been glad to hear that Miss Batten had relinquished her project of continuing her flight across the Tasman. and they made no secret of their conviction that the risks involved were considerable, but when, however, they found that Miss Batten's mind was firmly made up they gave her all possible assistance and encouragement and did everything in their power to facilitate lier purpose.

Just before Miss Batten took off, Captain Taylor, who had done everything possible to assist Miss Batten on her preparations, handed her a life jacket. She was inclined to reject it— "If I crash," she said, "it will merely prolong the agony" —but she allowed herself to be persuaded, and put it on.

Perhaps the most remarkable proof of Miss Batten's indomitable spirit and her resolute determination to complete the task that she had begun was supplied by her last message to the friends who said farewell to her at Richmond just before the take-off. ."If I should go down on the sea," she said, "no one must flv out to look for me. I have chosen to make this flight and I am confident that I can make it. But I have no wish to imperil the lives of others, or to cause trouble and expense to the country." It would be hard to conceive a more convincing proof of unselfish and courageous devotion than this—words, which as I the "Sun" has well said, "stamp Jean Batten as the heroine that she is, a girl of supreme courage looking unafraid at j the spectre of death hovering over the I vast and lonely ocean."