USE OF WIGRAM AERODROME

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21465, 6 May 1935, Page 19

USE OF WIGRAM AERODROME

COMMERCIAL SERVICES TO BE EXCLUDED

STATEMENT BY PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT

Wigram Aerodrome will not be available much longer for use by commercial, aircraft, according to informa-j tion that has been received from thej Public Works Department by one of the aviation companies that has been granted a license to carry on a trunk service between the North and South Islands. This company has written to the Christchurch City Council, setting out the attitude of /the Public Works Department, and asking the council for information about its proposals for the establishment of a municipal aerodrome in Christchurch. The' company, in its letter to the council, states that its services should be in operation toward the end of the year, and that it has been investigating the suitability of grounds for aerodromes on its route. Christchurch is an important link on the route proposed and the company has made enquiries as to its right to use Wigram Aerodrome. The following reply had been received from the engineer-in-chief and under-secretary to the Public Works Department:— "One of the most important points at which no attempt has been made as yet by the local authority to establish an aerodrome is Christchurch. The .city has been content to rely on the use of Wigram Aerodrome. "It would be well for your company to bear in mind that with the intensive development that is taking place at present in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, service activities at this aerodrome will, in the very near~ future, preclude the possibility of its use i>y civil aircraft during certain periods of tne year, and at no far distant date it will be impossible to carry on commercial in conjunction with service flying." The company asks in its letter to be informed what steps, if any, are being taken by the council to provide what it describes as "such necessary aerodrome facilities." Its letter concludes: "We need hardly stress the importance of this matter or the urgency which surrounds it." The Mayor, commenting on the letter, recalled that at the last meeting of the City Council, instructions had been given to the City Engineer (Mr A. R. Galbraith) to expedite the preparation of the report which he was drawing up on the subject of a municipal aerodrome. "The council was put off the subject by the statement made by the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. when he told me in the House that Wigram would be available to Christchurch for years," said the Mayor. "Mr Coates is to blame for any delay which has been caused."