Birthday Relay Begins

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29911, 27 August 1962, Page 11

Birthday Relay Begins

(New Zealand Press Association)

INVERCARGILL. Aug. 26. An Invercargill Air Training Corp cadet. Flight Sergeant John Mcllroy, left the Invercargill Town Hall at a smart trot at noon today, to begin a more than 900mile relay which will finish at Hobsonville Air Force base, near Auckland, at 2 p.m. on Saturday. A b'ast from a -303 blank, fined by Sergeant R. Lightfood, resident Air Force n.c.0., sent Mcllroy on his way. '■ Earlier, the Deputy-Mayor (Mr N. L. Watson) handed a message from the Mayor of Invercargill (Mr A. L. Adamson) to the first runner. The message will be handed to the Mayor of Auckland (Mr D. M. Robinson) at Hobsonville.

The message was placed in a metal relay baton which will go from hand to hand every three miles along the length of New Zealand. “As Mayor of the most

southerly city in New Zealand I join with you as Mayor of the most northerly city in conveying our warm congratulations to the Air Training Corps on the occasion of their 21st birthday,” said Mr Adamson in his message. The relay will carry on day and night The South Island leg will end at Woodbourne, near Blenheim. From there the baton will be carried across Cook Strait in an R.N.Z A.F. Devon aircraft and the first North Island runner will pick it up at Wellington airport. A car with a huge sign on the back in reflector tape warning motorists qf the run-

ner will stay behind each runner right through. A bus drops of! new runners every three miles, keeping about six miles ahead of the man running. A communications vehicle will keep the party in touch with the Wigram Air Force base. The runners are wearing white running bibs on which their mission is oroclaimed in reflector tape. The baton has a red light at one end, battery lit, which is kept going all night A.T.C. units throughout the country are responsible for sections of the run. As each section is completed, the runners are taken back to their homes.