The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The sun. TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1937. THE MISSING LINK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 146, 22 June 1937, Page 6

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

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1937. THE MISSING LINK.

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

Ye-terday an air mail for England was hastily closed and dispatched to Sydney by a cargo steamer. The mail is due in England

on .inly 11, and three days later two more air mails from Xew Zealand will arrive together. To-day the Maunganui, arriving at Wellington, brought two air mails, those dispatched from London on June 2 and June 5. These happenings arise from the one cause, t)je absence of' a trans-Tasnian air service, and similar happenings may be expected while this link in the Empire airways is missing. That lit is missing now is not due to lack of enterprise in Australia and Xew Zealand, or to technical difficulties, but simply to the iileiavs of Governments.

It had been hoped that after the Imperial (.'(inference there would bt* ;.n announcement ol' complete agreement concerning the control, operation and approximate starting date of the (rans-Tasman agreement. There has been no such announcement. There was an unofficial report that the Conference had reached agreement, and that it now rested with the British, Australian and New Zealand Governments to settle the "machinery." The official report of the civil air communications (committee of the Conference merely stated that it had arranged for the proposed air I service to be dismissed by the delegations concerned. In Australia there is reported the expectation that experimental flights will begin next year. Why wait until next year? The layman now understands that careful preparations are essential before a regularservice can be safely launched, but he also knows that many of these preparations could have been made before now, and that they can be made this year, if only the Governments concerned will make up their minds.

In contrast with the dilatory attitude of the Governments is the far-seeing action of Pan-AmericanAirways. The company sent a flying-boat on an experimental flight to New Zealand, and on his return its commander submitted a report on the proposal to establish a regular service between Honolulu and 'Auckland. The company's decision has not been announced, but meanwhile the company maintains its radio station at Auckland, and weather observations are reported to headquarters every day. No comparable continuous observation of weather conditions in the Tasman is being carried on, and if equipment and staff are being seeured and engaged for the purpose the fact has not been announced. There may have been good reasons for the long dispute betwem the Governments on the question of control of the service—on this matter also the public has been kept in the dark —but whoever controls it, ground organisation will be needed, and it should be in preparation now. Irrespective of the British-Australian air service, the Commonwealth and Dominion need an air link, and their people, if not their Governments, are thoroughly dissatisfied because it has not been provided long before now.