Provision of Aerodromes.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20910, 18 July 1933, Page 8

Provision of Aerodromes.

The suggestion made to the Minister for Defence by a deputation from the New Zealand Aero Club that immediate efforts should be made to choose suitable aircraft landing grounds throughout the Dominion, and that these should then be developed by the use of unemployed labour, is one that should receive more thoughtful consideration than most of the propositions that are put to Ministers by deputations. The need for more aerodromes in New Zealand, though not immediately pressing, is one that will certainly become more urgent as soon as there is any considerable trade revival; and as soon as that revival occurs, land that could be acquired now at moderate cost may advance steeply in price. In the older countries air services do not save nearly as much of the traveller's time as they should, because airports have been forced miles from the centres of towns. Here land may be acquired close to the centres of towns, if it is bought now; in a few years' time the activities of the speculative builder may have put this la'id out of financial reach for cities •v hich want airports. A chain of airports is as essential to the tactical requirements of air defenders as it is to commercial air services, and since we have to spend money on defence we may as well make it serve a double purpose. Objections may be raised against the proposal to level tho selected areas by the use of unemployed labour, but while it is the country's policy to make work a condition of relief, the unemployed will be v earning their relief more usefully by working on aerodromes than they are in some of the work they are at present doing.