AVIATION RELIC FOR N.Z.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29633, 2 October 1961, Page 7

AVIATION RELIC FOR N.Z.

Clock Of Flying Boat

A clock salvaged from the Empire flying boat Centaurus, which made the first survey flight from London to Auckland in 1837. will be pre. sented to the people of New Zealand by Qantas Empire Airways to mark the beginning of its new trans-Tasman service. The Centaurus was commanded by a New Zealander. Captain John Burgess, and the survey flight paved the way for the first regular Tasman air services begun by T.E.A.L. in 1940.

While it was attached to the R.A.A.F. the Centaurus was destroyed by enemy action at Broome, Western Australia, in 1942. Its clock and altimeter were salvaged and preserved in Qantas’s aviation museum in Sydney Sir Hudson Fysh, chairman of Qantas, will present the clock to the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) in Wellington on Tuesday when Sir Hudson Fysh and Captaip Burgess arrive on the first Qantas service.

Workers Crushed.—Scaffolding weighing seven tons crushed three Italian workers to death yesterday at a coking plant. The men, with four others, were building a furnace when part of the scaffolding high above them gave way and fell on top of them.—Carling, east France. September 29.