HINKLER HONOURED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 136, 5 March 1929, Page 6

HINKLER HONOURED

“A NATIONAL HERO” %’ ■ 1 Following is an extract taken from the souvenir menu of the dinner to Squadron Leader H. J. L. Hinkler, A.F.C., D.S.M., R.A.A.F., given by Sir Charles C. Wakefield, Bart., C.8.E., at the Savoy Hotel, London; — “London to Australia in Sixteen Days. During the past decade men and women of British race have made many notable contributions towards the progress of the science and practice of aviation. The first flights across the Atlantic and the first flights to the Antipodes were accomplished by Britons— using that word in its widest sense—in machines of British workmanship. Australia has naturally had a magnetic attraction for British and Australian airmen. In 1019 the late Sir Ross Smith and his brother,. Sir Keith, successfully completed the,whole distance from England to Australia, in what was then a record long-distance flight of twenty-eight days. Then, m 1920, Sir Alan Cobham made the round trip out and home by seaplane and secured much valuable technical information in so doing. His spectacular return home to the waters of the Thames at Westminster will long be remembered. These are records of which we do well to be proud. “It has been left .to Squadron-Leader H. J. L. Hinkler, A.F.C., D.S.M., K.A.A.F., to contribute to the history of aviation within the Empire the first individual flight from London to Australia. Like that of his precursors nearly ten Tears ago, his was a flight to nis native land, and Australia give him a wonderful welcome. Few men can have had a more romantic home-coming and it is no wonder that he became a national hero. He put “Bundaberg ‘on the map for all time 1 Thus it happens that only now, nine months after the event, are we in England enabled to pay our tribute to this astonishing and outstanding teat. “The bare recital of the mileage of each daily stage in Squadron-Leader Hinkler’s truly epoch-making journey is indeed sufficient tribute to his courage and endurance. Hinkler’s journey takes rank amongst the great individual exploits ot historv. Characteristically, his departure on February 7, 1928, was modern and virtually unannounced, and few, except those who knew the man, realised that his .flight was a serious attempt until it was well-nigh accomplished. . “The flight ended, as it began, with a long juiiip, and that last 1000 mile stage - from .Bima to Port Darwin, coming as it greatest possible strain upon nerve and endurance, was a crowning achievement. We were not privileged to assist at the triumphal progress from Tort Darwm to Bundaberg; but nothing but mere distance. separated us from our Australian kinsmen at that hour. The whole Empire shared in the rejoicings at theiappy and successful conclusion of a gallant endeavour. . "The British share in the flight was not n small one, for the machine in which it was made owed everything to one of our most famous pioneers in de-si'-n and it and its. engine were of British workmanship. Of these facts we are tnodestlv proud, and we arc glad, too, I hat they help to symbolise Imperial unity. Firstand foremost, however,cornea the human element, and it is as an imperishable inspiration to all lovers of courage and-deterniination that we in the Motherland pay to-night our heartfelt tribute to our guest of honour, -