RONGOTAI AIRPORT

Evening Post, Issue 12, 14 July 1936, Page 6

RONGOTAI AIRPORT

INQUIRY URGED

A correspondent, M. Young in a letter to "The Post," urges that the Government should institute a full investigation into the question of Wellington's airport before permitting , m°«ni<'ney to be spent upon Rongotai :. "When the late Sir Charles ICinssfprd .Smith first came to New Zealand " the correspondent writes, "he stated on several occasions that Rongotai would l.be useless for commercial aeroplanes ; on.-account of the air currents and I down .drafts from the hills. Later he was supposed to have said that the i.aerodrome would be all right if it were 1 fen2 e3- \ ,The aerodrome has been .extended (after much argument by certain people) at great expense, but do the 'events recently justify the selection of Rongotai:as Wellington's airport, or the expenditure made or to be made upon it?" : The correspondent deals in particular with .two days recently when difficulty was experienced. On the first a southerly wind was blowing and the passenger; aeroplane could not land and had to return to Blenheim. The weather, he asserts, was general throughout New Zealand; yet other air services were not suspended, nor was the aeroplane unable to land at Blenheim. On the second occasion observed by him a northerly wind made the landing difficult, and after running towards the hangar, the pilot, handling the machine very skilfully, took off again and swung to the left of the buildings and came in for a second . "\ s.,} t to° lale to consider the desirability, of Porirua Harbour as the commercial airport?" continues the writer. "Under the circumstances I consider that the Government should demand an immediate investigation of these cases and of the wisdom of spending any more money on an airport that can only be used sometimes"