SUCCESS FIRST

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 218, 11 June 1930, Page 13

SUCCESS FIRST

SUBSIDY MAY THEN FOLLOW COMMERCIAL AIR LINES POSTMASTER-GENERAL’S VIEW By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, June 10. The view that air services in New Zealand should be proved successful before the question of Government mail subsidies was considered, was expressed by the Postmaster-General (Hon. J. B. Donald) to-day. The Minister referred to the recent refusal of the Minister of Defence to grant Government aid in the establishment of a commercial airways undertaking. It had been suggested that the matter should have come before the Post and Telegraph Department rather than the Defence Department, he said, but he was doubtful if he personally could have moved in the matter. “Of course I do not know the facts of the case,” said Mr. Donald. “However, I should say that there would be little hone of a commercial air service between Auckland and Wellington receiving a mail subsidy from the Post and Telegraph Department. An air service between Auckland and Christchurch or Auckland and Dunedin might be a different matter, but the Government would require proof that any company undertaking such a service was capable of managing it. My View is that'the air lines should be established, and then if they prove satisfactory the companies could approach the Government for a subsidy.”