AN AIR MINISTRY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 197, 18 May 1936, Page 8

AN AIR MINISTRY

Indications are that the happy relationship subsisting between the New Zealand Aero Club and past Governments will be continued and perhaps extended under the present Government. On Saturday the Prime Minister all but promised the setting up of an Air Ministry. Such a development would necessitate a new department of State, but only a small one, staffed for the most part by officers of the several other departments now doing the work that, it is hoped, the new department would be able to do almost as cheaply and with the added efficiency born of centralisation, lhe immediate benefits might not be as great as the Aero Clubs’ insistency would lead one to suppose. Indeed, some advocates of the change allow their enthusiasm to run away with them. “Why,” they say. “at present military aviation is under the Defence Department; the preparation and improvement of aerodromes is under the Public Works Department; commercial air services are licensed by port Department; and the Post Office has charge of air mails.” The setting up of an Air Ministry, however, would not sweep away all this apparent multiplication of control. It is the Post Offices job to handle mails, whether they go by land, sea or air. Similarly, it is the Defence Department’s job to look after the defence of the country; and if transport is to be regulated to its maximum efficiency, all its branches must be brought under one authority. It is when we look to the future of aviation that the need, for unified control becomes fully apparent. The Air Force will continue to be under the Minister of Defence; but it ought to be given the status of a full and independent service. The Army and the Navy are both under the Minister of Defence; below him they are separate, and the Air Force ought to be separate also. Separation could be effected without an Air Ministry, for we have no Minister for the Navy; but now that an Air Ministry has. become desirable by reason of the growth of our civil aviation, it is only right and proper that military aviation also should come under his . orbit, subject always to the over-riding authority of the Minister of Defence. What the New Zealand. Aero Club principally wants —what all supporters of aviation in New . Zealand want —is Government recognition of the limitless possibilities in the future of flying. “Where air provides the best means of transport it is going to be used,” said Mr. Savage in replying to an earlier Aero Club deputation, “and wherever the demand is for first-c'ass service it will be the Government’s job to supply it.” These words betoken a sympathetic appreciation of the possibilities ahead, and lead naturally to the further opinion expressed by the Prime Minister on Friday: that the case for an Air Ministry is “unanswerable and unavoidable.” Incidentally, they might be quoted also to imply Governmental support for the argument that all mail matter should be taken by air, without extra charge, wherever air transport would ensure faster delivery; but that is another subject.