CIVIL AIR PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 125, 30 May 1938, Page 8

CIVIL AIR PROGRESS

New Zealartd, for various reasons, such as remoteness from the world's commercial centres and the nature of the country itself and its contours, made a late start in civil aviation, but the figures presented by the Controller, Group-Captain T. M. Wilkes, and published in "The Post" on Saturday, show that the leeway has been more than made up. Commercial air services over several important lines are now well established and running with a regularity which, as the report mentioned, compares very well with the records of air services in any part of the world. These, airlines in the year fended March 31, 1938, flew a million and a half miles, and carried over 50,000 passengers, Resides a large quantity of mails and freight. In . speecl and., by direct communication, they have proved a boon to the travelling public in the saving of time and the avoidance of bodily fatigue. This is particularly notable with a wide ti region of the West Coast of the South Island, which has been' brought within easy reach of Wellington so that the distance now is measured by hours rather than days. Despite its disabilities, Rongoi tai, Wellington's airport, is the busiest in the Dominion with a frequency of traffic comparable with that of leading air centres elsewhere in the world. This growth of air traffic, together with rapidly developing aero club flying and the training of . the territorial Air Force, emphasises the serious problem of adequate aerodromes, already acute in America and emerging in Australia. Aviation has definitely come to stay and provision must be made by the authorities for inevitable expansion theadvent of overseas air services which cannot much longer be delayed.