The Press WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1935. City Airports

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21647, 4 December 1935, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1935. City Airports

On Monday evening the Wellington City Council tentatively approved a plan to spend £128,000 on making Rongotai airport suitable for large commercial aeroplanes. On the same evening the Christchurch City Council met, and made no mention of the airport which it should have bought years ago, and has been talking about for months. That is not the whole story, for the Wellington City CouncU has owned the Rongotai airport for years, and has already spent many thousands of pounds on it It is safe to say that if Wellington were suddenly presented with the geographical advantages of Christchurch it would be glad to give up as lost the money it has spent in trying to overcome natural obstacles at Rongotai, and would have men at work within a few days levelling one of the many possible aerodrome, sites within easy reach. Wellington—with several other towns in New Zealand has realised for years that though the establishment of air services in New Zealand has been delayed, the growth of civil aviation, once it begins, will be swift. They have not hesitated to prepare for that growth, and by their preparations, to stimulate it. Christchurch has been happy to rely on the goodwill of the Defence Department, forgetting that goodwill may vanish if presumed on, and that in any case defence developments which would close Wigram aerodrome to commercial traffic are not impossible or even unlikely. The public was led to believe some weeks ago that the purchase of an area at Harewood for conversion to an aerodrome had been decided on, and that only minor negotiations were necessary before the deal could be completed. Yet at meeting after meeting of the City Council there is no report of real progress, and there is not a man working on the ground. From the time work starts till the aerodrome is ready for use, is likely to be two years, which means that at least one commercial line will have to use Wigram aerodrome for more than 18 months, even if the council acts now. But so much time has been wasted already that early action seems unlikely and the probability is that Union Airways and perhaps Great Pacific Airways (N.Z.) will still be sending their machines to and from Wigram—if the Defence Department will let them—in 1938. From time to time there are complaints that in one matter or another the South Island receives less than its deserts, and the North Island more. In the present case, it is obvious from the direct comparison that the South Island may easily lose some of the advantages which the North Island will gain from air transport. If it does, it will not be able to blame the government, or the air line companies, or anything else but itself and its own astounding inertia and shortsightedness; and the most disheartening feature of this, to progressive South Islanders, is that there is more to gain here by a policy of action than there is in the North Island. Nor can all the blame in Christchurch be laid on the City Council. Business interests will gain most from air and in other towns business men have realised this; but in Christchurch, if the business organisations have ever given a thought to aviation, they have kept extremely quiet about it.