The Press Wednesday, September 12, 1928. The Flight.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19413, 12 September 1928, Page 12

The Press Wednesday, September 12, 1928. The Flight.

> We point out in another article to-day that 1928 is likely,to be the greatest ' year so far experienced in.-the history of aviation. In spite of some tragic losses and failures it will be remembered all over the world as the year in which the earth's most difficult gaps were bridged one by one. Bat for New Zealand it is the only year. Until yesterday no one had ever succeeded in flying here from another country, and only two had been bold enough to try. A few miles out from the Australian coast, and again a few miles off the coast of New Zealand, the Southern t, Cross dropped wreaths into the Tasman in honour of two aviators who lost their lives while trying to fly from Australia in January. Both were New Zealanders, and New Zealand is still proud of them, and i this week especially remembers what courage ,they showed in trying to win so much honour for their country with so little assistance from science. It is pleasant v to think that their dependents have been ranked by the Government. with the dependents of men who gave their lives On the-battlefield, and have been correspondingly pensioned. But while it is proper in the circumstances to remember New Zealand's attempt it is Australia that has conquered the! Tasman, and it is of two very gallant Australians of whom everybody at present is talking. With 'their two. assistants —one of them a New Zealander, and the other a navigator of such proved skill rthat any flyer, would be glad to itust Mm—these two Sydney pilots have again sent Australia's name round the world. Now that we have their full story we can see that the flight was another tremendous test both of their . machine and of their own endurance and skill, and the excitement shown at Sockbnrn yesterday was merely .the beginning of New Zealand's appreciation! It will perhaps take some time for everybody to realise how great a service the flyers have rendered us economically; but we know in a way that their journey takes rank with the first crossing of the Tasman by steam, the first' voyage from Australia by sail, and even with the first visit to New Zealand by Captain Cook (whose life and work, by a happy coincidence, America and Britain have both been celebrating within the last few days). Everybody-knows also that except for Cook and his companions no one else took nearly so much risk in coming to New Zealand as the four men have just token on the Southern Cross. They did everything that they could do to overcome the risks that are avoidable, but they all knew when their took,.off from Richmond that security on' such a journey .to impossible. They would never have started, the Tasman would never been crossed, iJew Zealand woulfl,&ever v have been shown that an : air-link with the Commonwealth is posi sible, if they had not been men of great resource - and, daring as well as supremely skilful flyers. : We are very proud in Caaterbtoy that it has fallen to our lot to giVd them theif first welcome, but we do not think of it as a Canterbury welcome (jnly, and we are sur* : th&t they do not.