Air Force rescues fireworks fun

Press, 17 October 1987, Page 9

Air Force rescues fireworks fun

Fireworks fun for hundreds of Christchurch schoolchildren could have been ruined had the Royal New Zealand Air Force not come to the rescue yesterday. The Air Force flew several cartons of fireworks to Christchurch last evening just in time to save the evening for the Redwood School. The cartons had been stranded on the Wellington wharves for a week and it would have been another week before they could have been shipped, said the president of Breens Intermediate School’s Parent-Teacher Association, Mrs Sylvia Phipps. Six Christchurch schools had arranged for the fireworks to i! be brought from Auckland by rail and sea, she said. Three of the schools would have had to cancel

their fireworks displays had it not been for the Air Force. It was thought that a regulation which prevented dangerous goods being shipped unless they filled a container had delayed the fireworks in Wellington. Mrs Phipps said it was fortunate the Air Force had a scheduled freight flight from Wellington and had agreed to carry the fireworks free.

Breens Intermediate, Elmwood Normal, Papanui Primary, Redwood, Central New Brighton, and Cashmere Primary schools had organised the firework displays as community functions and fdr fund-raising, said Mrs Phipps. They were run by P.T.A.S and school committees under strict controls and with permits from the Labour Department. .