COUNCIL’S CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 104, 27 January 1931, Page 8

COUNCIL’S CHARGE

Reception to Menzies RONGOTAI AIRPORT Story of Signboards Amazement at having to pay 1/- to attend a civic reception must have been the dominant feeling of many of those who went to Rongotai airport on Thursday to welcome Mr. Guy Menzies. In the announcements that the Mayor would give Mr. Menzies a civic reception there was no hint that those who accepted the invitation would be called on for a levy of 1/- a head. It has not been usual to charge for receptions held in the Town Hall. Money was not collected from the

people who went to those given to Kingsford Smith, Chichester and GarIt may be suggested that the City Council decided that if members of the public wanted to see a Tasmanflying Australian aviator they could pay for the opportunity. If the plea be that the public wanted to see Mr. Menzies and his machine, then it seems that.the council viewed the occasion as being similar to an entertainment for a crowd and not as a greeting to a popular figure. In any case, it can be said that the council reduced the welcome to a commercial proposition. When they reached Rongotai most people elected to honour the aviator from the boundary fence. Still, hundreds forfeited their shillings and passed through the fence.

The only explanation seems to be that the charge was the shilling admission which Is levied in normal times. One can go to the recreation ground, separated from the aerodrome by Kingsford Smith Street, without being expected to pay. The Mayor has stated that If and when the airport ceases to be an airport it wqjjld become a portion of the recreation ground. The Wellington City Council ie well nnd unfavourably known throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand for the charges which it levies at the airport.

Three photographs accompany tin's article. They show how civil aviation is regarded in Marlborough and in Wellington. The first picture is that of the signboard erected on Woodbourne Aerodrome, Blenheim, from which the “Southern Cross” took off for Austrr'/ia, a field much bigger than Rongotain being half

a mile square. Its invitation to the public is a large sign, which can be seen from afar as one drives along the road leading to the flying field. On the gate at Rongotai is the notice shown in the second picture. “Pay here, admission 1/-,” is the warning which it presents to the intending visitor. The council at Rongotai has erected a hangar, a temporary one which is as ugly as a futurist painting, and very drab. There is little else that the council has provided which cannot be seen from outside the gates. The only attraction seems to be the aeroplanes, and these are the property of the aero club, or, at least, are a Government loan to the chib. Assuming that the visitor has paid his shilling, inspected the aero club’s machines, seen the ground engineers and the pilot-instructor at work, and is leaving the aerodrome, the third illustration is one of the sights he sees. “Admission 6d.” it reads, “but I paid a shilling,” the man thinks. “They have cheated me.” “I’ll see what it says on the other side,” he decides. He looks at the sign on the outside of the fence, and finds it states “Admission 1-.” “What does this mean?” he wonders, and then suddenly it dawns upon him that the city council, at one time, Jiad thought of charging 6d., but had decided to make the figure bigger.