"LET THERE BE LIGHT"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 55, 13 September 1928, Page 12

"LET THERE BE LIGHT"

A SOUTHERN GROSS SOUVKNJKThe famous stick messages that passed betwen the pilots' cabin and the radio and navigating cabin on the Southern Cross during her trans-Tas-nian flight have already been referred to in statements issued by members of the crew. In particular Mr. M' Williams, the New Zealander who is radio operator, has made it clear that between the two compartments oral communication was not possible, and it was the practice to communicate by forwarding written messages, being little pieces of paper pushed through on a stick. One of these messages was referred to in yesterday's "Evening Post" story of the flight, and it is re-

produced herewith. It shows a hole that appears to be evidence of the stick, and it tells its own story, being a request by "Chas" (apparently Flight-Lieutenant C. T. P. TJhn) to "Mac" (evidently Mr. M'Williams) to turn on the searchlight. A Wellington gentleman prizes this scrap of paper (which was found in the cockpit of the Southern Cross after landing) as a memento, which he assures us was obtained through a regular channel and by authority. Some day it may rank equal in importance with the log book of an early navigator. At any rate, certain literary relics of last century are sometimes valued at a premium, and probably with far less justification that attaches to this liuinWc bit of paper in its relation to an historic and epoch-making flight.