AVIATION OPENS UP WEST COAST

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 208, 31 May 1935, Page 12

AVIATION OPENS UP WEST COAST

Another Plane Necessary CARRYING MOUNTAIN HUTS BY AIR The outlook of settlers on the West Coast has been transformed and the remoteness of that part of the South Island has been overcome through the commencement in December last of an air service from Inchbonnie to Hokitika and to Okura via Haast by Air Travel (N.Z.) Ltd. The journey from Hokitika by means of motor, pack horse and foot occupies three weeks. Now the journey may be done in li hours by passenger plane. The Bruce Bay and far south mail taken in by pack horse used to average 140 pounds every fortnight. Now the weekly load weighs on an average more tban 2501 b. Mountaineers on annual leave used to find that most of their time went in making the journey to the base of Mount Aspiring inland from Okura and Arawata. A change is to come about. The company proposes to transport a mountain hut to Arawata for use by mountaineers wishing to scale Mount Aspiring and unelimbed peaks. The hut will measure 24ft. in length, 7ft. in height and Oft. in width. Next week it will be shipped by steamer and landed at Okura. Between his mail flights, Captain J. C. Mercer, the pilot of the Fox Moth plane used in the service, will transport the hut by air piecemeal over the forty miles between Okura and Arawata for erection there. Making Landing Grounds. The country in South Westland is being opened up since the establishment of this air service as it never has been before. Deer stalkers and duck shooting parties have been going by air into the Landsborough country. A second hut will be erected at the junction of the Clarke and Landsborough Rivers. Sightseers have been going as far as Okura and Pembroke in order to tramp farther south to see the seals at Cascade Point. Visits to the Franz Josef Glacier have been made by many people by air during the late summer and early autumn. Work is being done from time to time with the aid. of the Public Works Department, to improve the landing grounds which during the summer have been satisfactory. Much remains to be done, however, and preparation for the rainy season is under way. It has been found that topdressings of .sand provide a good surface for landing and taking off during wet weather. Settlers in remote localities have given every assistance in the construction of landing grounds, and some of them have gone to much personal expense. Some settlers have their own private landing grounds as an invitation to the plane and as part of the scheme for the bringing in of mails and goods ordered from the centres. Others are considering acquiring their own planes. Prospectors, clergymen, policemen, trampers and tourists have been using the passenger services to gain access to country that used to be regarded as the most remote in New Zealand. One priest used to use packhorses in order to get to the far end of Westland; he now saves several weeks that used to be spent in travel of the roughest kind. New Era Ahead. An additional plane—one that used to be used by the Prince of Wales—has been acquired in order to cope with the business of handling passengers, mails and general freight. The returns of the company for the first three months ended March 31 last showed that over 30,000 miles had been flown and 595 passengers had been carried, also 26371 b. of freight and 18411 b. of mail matter. During that period the schedule had been maintained and there had been only four delays because of extremely bad weathey. Passengers’ luggage was not counted as freight. All kinds of parcels arid goods are carried, from household supplies to farm equipment, including live poultry, ducks and dogs. A system of co-opera-tion with settlers in remote districts is termed the deferred order plan. A settler gives an order for certain bulky freight to be brought at a time suitable to the pilot, who procures the goods and brings them when there is extra room available.

A new era is being opened up in Westland for those interested in cattle and sheep, timber, gold and other minerals of value, fishing grounds comparable with those anywhere else in New Zealand, mountaineering, game hunting, holidays and sightseeing. To give one example, the Publicity and Tourist Department will be able to add a new feature to Its list for tourists—the feature of New Zealand’s seal rookery at Cascade Point —a feature of which so little has been said in the past because of the great difficulties of transport. A deer-culler used the service to get into the deer country for the last six weeks of the season, when the skins are in the best condition. He killed 188 deer in six weeks.