The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1937. NEW ZEALAND A CROSSROADS OF THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 157, 31 March 1937, Page 10

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1937. NEW ZEALAND A CROSSROADS OF THE AIR

Besides giving Auckland a rare thrill of importance, the safe arrival there of the Pan-American Airways’ Clipper from San brancisco by wav of Honolulu. Kingman Reef and American Samoa, is a noteworthy event in world aviation and in the development ot communications in the Pacific Ocean. Since the September morning in 1928 when Squadron Leader Kingsford Smith and Lieutenant Lint first circled above Wellington. New Zealand has waited patiently for the establishment of an air service or air services that would link her with the outside world. In the interim, international services elsewhere have been pushed ahead energetically, and are operating with a high degree of regularity and of safety. But although the Tasman Sea has been flown many times, and although, through the Imperial service from London to Austin . aviation has brought New Zealand already into .quicker contact. w th the United Kingdom, the Dominion remains aerially isolated. Hence the importance "of yesterday’s event. Past flights to N ew . Zealand have been pioneering ventures: some well-planned, some rather ven turesome ai?d foolhardv, but all contributing to the sum of kno 'j’ ( i rl g upon which the permanent commercial aviation of the future wi.l be based. With the arrival of the Pan-American Clipper the pioneering era has closed. She is engaged in a methodical survey, intended to be the forerunner of a regular service within the next six mont.. a service which will bring New Zealand within four days journey of California, and within a week of New York and the Eastern cities of Canada. Because of the early likelihood of a regular service oyei the North Atlantic Ocean, and the extension of the Imperial Anwars service from Australia to New Zealand, there seems every reason to hope that within a year or eighteen months, New Zealand may be an international air junction, the southern pivot of aerial commerce that girdles the Earth. This will mean something in the quickening of personal movement across the Empire and the world; much more (for common folk) in the quickening of postal transit. Also, it will help to break down, as radio is doing, the mental barriers, born of distance and physical detachment, which hitherto have robbed us of full, participation in the artistic and cultural delights of the older civilisations. That these benefits should be conferred upon us by an alliance ot British and American interests is doubly appropriate, m view ot our place in the Pacific Ocean and our dependence more than most countries upon the continued exercise of a trusteeship of the seas by the navies of the two great English-speaking democracies. Lie American eagle was never more welcome than when, turned amphibian as well as migratory, he alighted yesterday on the waters of the Waitemata.