Home & People A man who agitated for the airport, filming as he went

Press, 10 April 1978, Page 12

Home & People A man who agitated for the airport, filming as he went

By

STAN DARLING

A cold and forbidding return to an airport hangar 23 years ago set a Christchurch man on a stint of agitating for better flight services to the South Island.

Today, Mr S. B. Barltrop — a 74-year-old retired mechanical engineer — has some successes as and a long “home movie’’ of Christchurch Airport development to show for his troubles. He had more than his share of knock-backs and stand-up arguments with Government Ministers, and encounters with persons who warned him that he was going too far, too fast in his lobbying. But he kept at it, and has no regrets. Mr Barltrop is even prepared to try again over the issue of direct transpacific flights through Christchurch if no-one else is successful. A former Railways engineer and manager of Addington Workshops, Mr Barltrop never thought much about the local airport until 1955. That year he returned from a round-the-world tour which included stops at many international terminals. He knew that the dingy hangar terminal here, then used for international flights, was a disgrace, and decided to do something about it. He compared it to a prison compound. Interested in amateur film-making since the 19305, he started a film chronicle of the airport’s growth. “It has been a story of frustration all the way through,” he said. What he called “the big three” — the Government, the Department of Civil Aviation and Air New Zealand — had always been reluctant to grant Christchurch its fair portion of overseas flights. He was told from the start it would not be easy, Mr Barltrop said, and support for his lobbying would not appear quickly.

When he decided to start a petition drive for a new air terminal in 1955, after Government comments that it would be

some years in coming, he was told by a former Mayor — the late Sir Ernest Andrews — that no Government was ever willing to give anything to the South Island. Sir Ernest had fought hard to get the first DC-4 service from Melbourne to Christchurch. “He gave me the inspiration to carry on fighting,” Mr Barltrop said. A local petition itself gained some 12,000 signatures in favour of a terminal to replace the hangar now used by the Canterbury Aero Club and Mt Cook Airlines. More important aid came from a big majority of South Island local bodies and business groups. They rallied around his

idea, a far cry from the original reaction of the local Chamber of Commerce to his plea for help. “They told me plump and plain that it (the issue had nothing to do with me,” he said. That’ made me see red.” He was helped by some other local residents in organising the’petition drive. Within seven weeks from starting the drive, the then-Prime Minister, the late Mr Holland, came down for a meeting at Warners Hotel with the Citv Council and petition backers.

“At the end of the meeting, they gave the green light for the terminal building,” Mr Barltron said. It was up to the council then, and they hopped into it and got the job done.” The building, costing only $750,000, was completed and opened in 1960. During construction, he was constantly on hand with his film camera to record progress. Mr Barltrop said it was hard to explain the impression that the old hangar’s “freezing cold” reception had on him. Up to then, he had not been air-minded at all. He had been railway-minded.

Early on in the campaign, he had been told by a councillor that he was “just banging my head up against a brick wall.” Although his efforts were lauoable, the pressures against him were too great.

His film represented “23 years of hard work,” he said. There is a chance that the council may buy a print and use an edited version — the original lasts more than an hour — for promotional purposes. Whenever there has been a new development at the airport, Mr Barltrop and his camera have been there.

“I was right on top of the whole thing,” he said. “The travelling 1 did in and out of that airport is

nobody’s business.” When necessary, he also went up in Aero’ Club planes for aerial shots. It was not -the first time that Mr Barltrop had put a record on film. He was the Railways engineer in charge of building three West Coast gold dredges, and filmed those oper* ation-s. Then he filmed the job of getting New Zealand’s linen flax factories built during World War 11. But his airport film history is the most complex. Even Queen Elizabeth II had a hand in smoothing the way for part of it. Mr Barltrop had heard “glowing comments” made by the Queen about the airport facilties during her 1970 tour, and he wanted her speech for part of his film’s soundtrack. When the old N.Z.B.C. refused to supply him with the recorded speech, h? wrote to the Queen. She authorised the recording’s use. “So it is a film that has Roval assent,” Mr Barltrop said with a smile. The airport buff’s second “agitation campaign” was over iet aircraft services for New Zealand, especially the South Island. He is proud that Christchurch had pure jet flights

13 months before they came to Auckland.' His film shows the first Qantas 707 leaving Sydney in April, 1965 and arriving at Cnristchurch Airport. The film clip from Sydney was supplied by Qantas, while he was on the spot to watch the aeroplane land and taxi up to the terminal.

Vlr Barltrop knew that his constant lobbying had made him unpopular with officialdom, but he was miffed not to be invited along on the V.I.P. return flight to Sydney. He paid his own fare and went along, anyway.

He said it had not been enough to see the terminal go up, then forget about the airport’s future. “No sooner had the terminal building been erected than it was said tnere was only need for one international airport in New Zealand," he said. “We could not expect any international services.” His theory is that Air T.E.A.L.) was never in favour of expanding the city airport to international standards. They always said it was not viable. Someone else had to give them a push. “The economics theory has been blown out long ago.” Mr Barltrop said. “All this nonsense about things not. being viable is just a lot of poppycock.” Air New Zealand had’ been quick to bring DC10s to the airport after Qantas flew in their Boeing 7475, and the same thing would happen if an airline decided to fly from the United States to Australia by way of Christchurch. Eventually, the Christchurch runway would have to be lengthened, he added, but an airline could use soecial performance 747 s from the American West Coast in the meantime. “We have got to work pretty hard to get that to happen,” he saiu. Mr Barltrop said that he and supporters had succeeded in the past “because we had no political affiliation. These things are all mixed up in politics.”