CITY COUNCIL AND AERO CLUB

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 97, 26 April 1932, Page 8

CITY COUNCIL AND AERO CLUB

(Tp the Editor.) Sir, —1 wonder how many of the public know that the City Council, by its exorbitant charges, is crushing the Wellington Aero Club out o£ existence? The Aero Club is an asset to the community in that it provides rapid and safe travel available to the public in sickness or other emergency. It also trains pilots who will be invaluable in case of war. No doubt our city fathers would be only too pleased to escape in the club's 'planes in the event of earthquake or riot, but, unless the emergency happens in the near future, there "will be no 'planes to escape in. Is it a mere stupid killing of the goose that lays the golden eggs, or have our authorities, in their inscrutable wisdom, decreed that flying is impious and should be dis•countenanced? For the use of the Rongotai Aerodrome, the club pays as follows:— ,

(1) £300 a year for the first two machines. (2) £100 a year for the "Waco." (3) £120 a year for the other two machines in flying condition, or slightly less if crashed. - (4) Over £1 per week for the glider. (5) Two shillings for every passenger taken up, even when the passenger is a club member. Two shillings ;for ,every 'plane that lands from a distant drome. Two shillings every time a club pilot makes a cross country flightl ' . (6) Threepence a gallon royalty, on all benzine used. , . (7)_ One shilling every time a relative or friend of a member enters the.ground. This charge effectually prevents the social side of the club from being.developed,"and prevents prospective passengers from, entering the ground and becoming interested. (8) Sixpence whenever a car is driven into the ground/ * ' i The net result is that the club'runs at a loss each year, and is eating into* its capital in order to pay these charges. What a contrast with Dunedin, where the council pays the Aero Club £300 a year to encourage aviation! > '■*•• The time will soon come when ,we have no aero club. The only consolation is that it will be another gem to add to our story of i municipal muddling—the only town without a motor camping ground; our Northland tunnel; our Mount Victoria tunnel, which costs £37 a day to save a motorist one and a half miles; ,our municipal milk monopoly; our zoning parking; our forbidden night parking; our—but need 1 go on. I subscribe myself, A CITIZEN OF A VERY MEANvCITY.