The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1937. AIR SERVICES AND AIRPORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1937. AIR SERVICES AND AIRPORTS.

For the cause that. lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The report that a second flight to New Zealand may soon be made by one of PanAmerican Airways' flying-boats naturally encourages tlie hope lliat the Company means to exercise its right to inaugurate a regular service between San Francisco and Auckland. It is also a reminder that if Auckland values its opportunity to become the terminal not only of the Pan-American service, but of other services, which —however negative may be results of the deliberations ot Imperial Conferences —are bound to conic. Indeed, the requirements of internal air services alone are not likely to he for long satisfied by the Mange re aerodrome, on account ot its distance from the city. If Auckland, either deliberately or bv inaction, takes a short-sighted view ot air developments, then the opportunity which now is hers will vanish, and her loss will he (another centre's gain. I An example of far-sightedness is to be seen in the new civil aerodrome at Singapore, which was opened on Saturday. More than live years ago, at a time when the future, ot air services was much more speculative than lit is now, the Straits Settlement Government decided tu construct an airport. The site chosen was a shallow tidal basin, only two miles from the centre ot the city. It was realised that- the reclamation work, involving it he transport of 7b million cubic yards of jeartli filling, would be costly and slow, but the (Government had the courage to look ahead. The work took five years and cost £1,000,000, 'but already the port is used bi-weekly by Imperial Airways, to and from London; Royal Dutch Airways (K.L.M.), to and from Amsterdam; Qantas Airways, to and from Australia; and Koyal Netherland Indies Airways, to and from Java. In five years more, who shall say how many more services will be in operation, or how the existing ones will have grown"? This airport, it should be iinentioned, is distinct from the military air [base, situated on Joliore Strait, at the other tend ot the island from the city, and regarded las the largest self-contained air base in the lEmpire. The civil airport, however, is used jby the Volunteer Air Force, for whose 'accommodation the R.A.F. is spending £70,000. (Through its geographical position Singapore was, of course, practically assured of becoming [a port "for aircraft as for shipping, and its authorities may reasonably look forward to a far greater development of aviation than New Zealand will see, but they have done more than look to the future —they have provided for it. Auckland, in proportion to its opportunity, can afford to do no less.