AIRFIELD IN SOLOMONS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28805, 28 January 1959, Page 7

AIRFIELD IN SOLOMONS

Civil Service Opened (N.Z Press Association—’Copyright) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) HONIARA, January 27. An airfield built by Allied prisoners-of-war in the Solomon Islands in the early 1940’s was today officially opened to civil aircraft. The strip, 11 miles north of Buin, on Bougainville Island, was badly battered by Australian bombing missions. Today, after months of rebuilding, the airfield, named Kara, has now been approved for use by DC3 aircraft, flying between Rabaul and Bougainville and Rabaul and Honiara. The airstrip was opened by the Director General of Civil Aviation (Mr D. G. Anderson). Present at the opening was Father Francis Miltrup, long, a resident of Bougainville and a prisoner of the Japanese for two years and a half. Father Miltrup said Kara had been built by prisoners-of-wars and island natives. Their only tools had been roughly fashioned picks and wicker baskets. Extension Senior officials of the Australian Department of Civil Aviation are visiting Honiara to hold exploratory talks on a possible extension of the Rabaul-Honiara air service to the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

They will discuss the possibility of extending the existing air service with representatives of the British Solomons Protectorate Government. The Civil Aviation Department, it is understood, hopes that an extension will be possible within 12 months.