THE WELLINGTON AIRPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 135, 4 December 1935, Page 12

THE WELLINGTON AIRPORT

CITY COUNCIL'S INACTION

HOPING FOR THE BEST

(By A.A.H.)

The proposals put before the City Council by the airport committee for the development of Rongotai aerodrome to B grade classification and the comments of the City Engineer and of some councillors upon the report have caused surprise. Wellington's years of inaction and half-action in aerodrome improvement, while other centres, and smaller centres, too, have gone seriously to work to keep themselves on the aviation map, have led to an unpleasant awakening. The cost of making up leeway is going to be heavier than any but a few anticipated, and the start is being made so late that effective action will still lie ahead when the commercial ser-

vices are starting.

Always the City Council has taken up the attitude that Rongotai is a very good aerodrome indeed, lor is it not the municipal aerodrome, furthermore, was it not the first, or almost the first municipal aerodrome in 'Hew Zealand? Even so late as at that meeting of the Transport Co-ordina-tion Board when trunk service licences were being considered and Wellington stood an unpleasant chance of being left out from main services, the representations made on behalf of the council to the board suggested that though Rongotai was perhaps not so large as it might be and not so naturally favoured as others, such great advances might be expected in the design and operation of aircraft during coming years that Rongotai must do very well. The board was not impressed;

When serious doubts were raised as to the adequacy of Rongotai by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce and the proposal was-made that a full inquiry should be made, the City Council showed little enthusiasm. It did appoint representatives, one senior member of the council remarking that "it could do no harm." TIME FOR ACTION. The joint committee working under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce made its report to the City Council, recommending action very much on the lines of the scheme . "tentatively approved" on Monday afternoon. The report was "received." It was, at best, only casually discussed. Not until the Transport Co-oraina-tion Board expressed itself definitely and said that Wellington would not be permitted as a point of call for the larger commercial machines until further provision was made, chiefly in regard to an 'alternative landing ground, did the council regard the position as one for action. Investigations were put in hand, on the field and with a scale model and wind tunnel. Further, the council approved a stage by stage plan of development and a start was made with the first of those stages, but a minor start with a handful of men. In the rush of the preelection period the aerodrome receded into the background of -important subjects. (During the municipal election campaign it was barely mentioned, a rather dangerous subject to discuss, in fact.) The report made to the council on Monday put stage by stage progress in another light; the council was told that piecemeal work will not meet the need and that to deposit, spoil from Moa Point on the foreshore (and in any case no authority had been obtained to deposit spoil there) without a seawall—one of the future stages —would be futile.

The estimate of the cost of completing the work is £.128,000. To March last £39,600 had been spent, so that the total will probably considerably exceed £170,000. Even so, certain of the councillors did not appear at all happy in the conviction that Rongotai would then be the ideal airport for Wellington. "~ The City Engineer, too, advised that the fullest considerationshould be given before further work was done, lest the council should be led into heavy commitments without assurance of ultimate success. SEAWALL AND SOUTHERLIES. I Doubts were particularly expressed as to the lasting stability of a seawall to hold the reclaimed land (12 acres) against the southerlies that sweep into Lyall Bay. Mention was made by one councillor of the smashing effect of seas on massive seawalls at Timaru, New Plymouth, and Napier. The writer knows the old Timaru breakwater well. It was built, not of three or five-ton blocks, but of solidlyfounded, close-placed and bonded cast concrete masses, of thirty or forty tons; a special crane and crane rail track were built for their harrdling. He has seen, before the outer rubble wall was built, great blocks undermined and displaced by pounding seas, lifted clear and dropped onto the inner lines of blocks, then hammered at by following seas until they dropped into the enclosed harbour. But the conditions at Timaru and Lyall Bay are not really comparable. The seas that roar in on the open coast of South Canterbury are far more heavy than the storms which blow into Lyall Bay, and the sweep of the bay which it is proposed to reclaim is protected to some extent by a line of rocks, some above water, some just submerged, running out from Moa Point. The seawall is an engineering job and the engineers of the Public Works Department consulted by the.- City Engineer agreed that the proposed seawall can be made fully stable. GOOD REASON FOR HIGH COST. The cost of Rongotai Aerodrome, exclusive of buildings and equipment, has been estimated at £170,000. All aerodrome development, even with favourable natural conditions to start from, is costly. Earth and clay and rock are stubborn stuff; they cost much to move. It has been stated that the improvement work at the Milson Aerodrome, Palmerston North (without buildings, etc.) will be £50,000, and that levelling at Wigrain, Christchurch, has cost well over £50,000.

I Wellington's landing field started from far behind scratch, in a limited extent of sandhill wilderness. Every square foot of surface had to be made from the very rough, and the work has been carried out mainly as relief work, which is never nearly so economical as work by straight out contract. That is not to say that a contract should or could have been let, for Rongotai has served well in giving work to many hundreds of men who would otherwise have been in very bad case. It is to say that that fact must be taken into account when criticism of the cost is being made. A MAJOR POINT OF DOUBT. Is Rongotai the most suitable location? This remains in doubt. Notwithstanding the investigations made by the committee set up by the Chamber of Commerce and its opinion that Rongotai should be developed,' there are many who hold firmly to the view, possibly wrongjy, that Gear Island or Scabey Island offer greater advantages, and as no detailed information has been vouchsafed in support of the general statement that air conditions are less favourable at those localities than at Rongotai the continuing doubts are j understandable.

Have any records been kept of conditions at Gear Island or Scabey Island. of wind strengths, wind directions,

wind variations due to the effect of the hills to north-west and east, of comparative difficulties of approach in thick weather, or has casual, and at best occasional, observation, not backed by instrument recording, been adjudged sufficient?

Definitely no attempt has been made to obtain readings and records over any period sufficient to enable a true comparison to be made with the detail now available for Rongotai. The council has not been interested in Gear and Scabey Islands; rather has pride of possession led to a steady defence of Rongotai against all others. The atmosphere at Monday's meeting ol the council, however, did suggest— though councillors were for the most part guarded in what they said—that the doubts raised, and the probable cost of full development of Rongotai, will now lead them to a fuller consideration of the possibilities of an aerodrome at the foot of the Hutt Valley.

The general statement that Rongotai leads by far may be correctly founded; it may be fully substantiated if detailed investigations are made, by ground instruments, captive balloons, or what not, but the doubt today remains a major doubt and until full investigation is made Wellington cannot feel sure that for £170,000 a better aerodrome can be provided at Rohgotai than may be provided at much less cost at Gear or Scabey Islands. IN THE COMPANY OF STATE. In carrying so casually along, always hoping that all will turn out well, falling steadily behind such smaller centres as New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Napier, or Blenheim, where aerodrome development has been taken seriously, and finding itself still, with commercial services only weeks and months ahead, with a Grade E aerodrome—and that is the lowest grade of recognised commercial aerodromes—the Wellington City Council has after all merely been following the example in aviation advancement up till now given by the State.

The control of aviation in New Zealand has been so divided among a multiplicity of departments, acting sometimes in full correlation, sometimes, unless the face evidence is misleading, on separate lines and to divergent departmental ends, that aviation development remains far retarded.

There are six departments prominently concerned in the administration of commercial aviation in this country, and ho one is King:of the Castle. There has be.en no , one Minister in charge of aviation, no one department to guide the others. Head of the Civil Air Services is the Director of Air Services, but he is a military officer with no approach to the Minister, save through the Defence Department, and in any case there has been no Minister. The six leading administrating departments are: the Directorate of Air Services, the Transport Department, the Transport Coordination Board, the Post and Telegraph Department, the Public Works Department, the Scientific and Industrial Research Department, and, after them the local bodies, pleasing themselves if they please, seeking advice and guidance, if they please, from one or another or several of the half-dozen departments. Though in any case there is no obligation that they should follow advice so sought and given, as has been exemplified-by one local body further north in three years of piecemeal independent striving, stilf without success. The Wellington City Council, too, has preferred, until recently, to work along in splendid independence.

So it is that regular commercial flying will commence between the two islands within just weeks. The special weather services, vitally necessary as safe guides to pilots and their passengers, are only now beginning to be developed; radio communication and directional or beacon installations, as far as State action is concerned, are months off operation, though the companies, unable to wait for general action; have themselves, taken steps; there is no adequate provision against night landing possibilities, and though certain aerodromes are well advanced and a vast amount of work is being done today in the establishment of the chain of smaller landing fields, some main points of call are illequipped.

On the side, of defence, New Zealand rejoices in a fleet of twenty or so out of date or unsuitable machines and will have, when assembly is complete, twelve modern and formidable torpedo bombers, machines which were described, when the order was announced, as capable of flying far out to sea and delivering paralysing torpedo blows against any possible raiding enemy. Unfortunately there are no torpedoes nor bombs, nor opportunities of taking through the long period of training to efficiency the Air Force members who would be called upon to turn back a raiding fleet should emergency arise and torpedoes and bombs be in some way made available. The Air Force of New Zealand, essentially a defensive force, has no teeth to bare, let alone to bite with.

With divided, and sub-divided control advance was not to be expected, but present indications are that within the. near future, aviation, both commercial and defensive, may be placed under a single Minister and a single administrative head who will require from the several expert departments technical work which those departments are best fitted to carry out, for correlation under a common policy of aviation advancement.