AIR ROUTE OVER TASMAN

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21970, 19 December 1936, Page 8

AIR ROUTE OVER TASMAN

CLAIMS OF WELLINGTON AS TERMINAL DEPUTATION TO PRIME MINISTER [THE PRESS Special Service] WELLINGTON. December 18. The claims of Wellington as the terminal point of the proposed transTasman air services were put forward when a deputation representing the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, the Wellington City Council, and the Wellington Harbour Board waited on the Prime Minister, the llt. Hon. M. J. Savage, and other Ministers of the Crown. The Mayor of Wellington. Mr r \. C. A. Hisloo, as leader c£ the deputation, said that there were several questions on which the deputation wished information, as at present there was u lack of knowledge on many impor.ant details of the proposed service. in his questions he as*ed if it had been definitely decided to use flying boats, what experts with practical experience in modern ilying-boats were actvising the Government, and what examination had been made of the facilities near Wellington for these machines. Further questions asked were whether the serv.ee was to transport passengers, and by whom would the service be operated. Claims of Auckland From the statements in the newspapers it was assumed *by members of the deputation that flying-boats would be used, and that Auckland w«s under serious consideration as a terminal port. The Wellington Harbour Board had entered into negotiations already with three companies that were anxious to operate flying-boats with Wellington as a terminal, continued Mr Hislop. One of the experts from these companies had stated that Wellington offered a general surface and mooring conditions equal to, if not better than, any other harbour in the world. Mr Hislop enumerated other advantages for establishing Wellington as the terminal, laying particular emphasis on the length and width of the harbour and the central position on which the base could be established. The cost of distribution from Wellington, too, would be considerably less than from Auckland. Assuming that a ton load was provided by each 10 000 of population, the distribution would be 16,800 ton miles from Wellington 1 and 25,100 ton miles from Auckland. In addition, although it was not known what connexion the trans-Tasman service would have with the pan-Pacific service, it could not be denied that American interests would suffer if the terminal were at Auckland, and the cost of New Zealand services would be increased. Tourists would see practically nothing of the Dominion. Mails or passengers in a hurry cculd be flown from Wellington to Auckland as soon as they arrived from Australia. Emergency Landing Facilities In the statement made by members of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in the deputation, it was pointed out that the direct route from Sydney to Wellington was only 37 miles longer than that from Sydney to Auckland. No emergency landing places were available en the Auckland route, but the Wellington route contained several such landing stages. Much had been said about the bad weather, the statement continued, but from statistics taken last year it was ascertained that landing would have to be made under hazardous conditions on only 76 days in Wellington, compared with 107 in Auckland. Wellington, lying as it did in the centre of the Dominion, would serve efficiently a population of 609.000 persons, compared with 275,000 served by Auckland. "Should the air service to Auckland fail because of extreme atmospheric conditions," says the statement, "then the whole of New Zealand is cut out, just as we suffer to-day when vie have a break in our telegraph service through our cables all extending from the north, and when a serious break takes place in our North Island connecting trunk lines."