AIR TERMINAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 9

AIR TERMINAL.

IS ORAKEI BETTER?

AUSTRALIAN AIRMAN'S VIEW.

MORE SHELTERED POSITION.

The fact that Wing-Commander Hepburn, officer in charge of works for the Royal Australian Air Force, had suggested that Orakei would be a better site for the terminal of a trans-Pacific air service than Lady's Bay, was mentioned to the Hon. F. Jones, Minister of Defence, during the course of his visit, with Lord Hartington, to Hobsonville air base this morning. It was stated that near there was an adequate depth of water at low tide (12ft) and all the other necessities, with more sheltered conditions than existed at Lady s Bay. When this suggestion was conveyed to Mr. IX Holderness, engineer to the Auckland Harbour Board, who drafted the plans for the air terminal at Lady's Bay, he said that a site near the point on the western side of Orakei Bay had been one of the alternative suggestions made by him when l the question was ■ first discussed. He had discussed it with experts associated with the various interested parties, and it had not been so favourably commented upon before. One of the" major objections, he said, was that there was not a sufficient depth of water close in to the shore, and there were other objections also.