The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties’ Gazette THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1 933. TARANAKI'S TRIUMPH

Feilding Star, Volume 10, Issue 3929, 12 January 1933, Page 4

The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties’ Gazette THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1 933. TARANAKI'S TRIUMPH

Once again tlie most populous family and name in the English race scores nad gains added lustre with tlie splendid achievenient, of Sir Charles Kingslbrd Smith in crossing Tasman Sea in the Southern Cross loaded to its carrying capacity, with a human freight of five men, an adequate amount of petrol an oil and other* equipment that made the experiment a very practical adventure in the cause of commercial aviation. It is in this connection that we consider the success of the Southern Cross in its latest flight marts a greater triumph for Taranaki generally and New Plymouth particularly than even the personal victory of Kingston l Smith. For the Southern Cross has puti New Plymouth and Gerringong on the aviation map as the shortest and most direct flying route hetkveen Australia and New Zealand. That route is no longer to be described as the short cut as the crow flies, hut as the Southern Cross flies. As a result, Taranaki is to score as the aviation base of the Dominion for future business Inflight. .With fllie possible • exception of Wigram in Canterbury and Mangere in Auckland, no other aerodrome in New Zealand is as well fitted as the New Plymouth Aero Club’s property nt Pell Block to cope with the arrival of the giant monoplane Southern Cross. And considered from all the many aspects of tmns-Tasman flight, Bell Block offers inducements no other aerodrome in New Zealand can possess. It is the landing ground in New Zealand at t'V w ' shortest distance from Australia, the Gerringong beach, about 80 miles south of Sydney; it' is only 10 miles from Mount Fjgmont, the snow-capped sentinel which, under favourable weather conditions, will offer such a valuable landmark to tlie airmen; it lies at the terminal of a much used shipping route, so that_ in the unlikely event of an accident, help will not be so far distant ins might otherwise happen in the future that are sure to follow when passenger carrying becomes a commonplace. Our congratulations, therefore, t<o the New Plymouth Aero Club to its great enterprise in securing the landing of the Southern Cross. Buti what is there to be said about the organiser and hero of the flight ‘ J The world’s greatest aviator and the only circumnavigator of 11--whole wide world and the two hemispheres, he has done splendid things of derring-do in thv air so easily That more spectacular aviators of other nations are deemed to be greater than tV Australian. A mastier mechanic as well as a ace in aviation, an engineer of the now era as wc l ' as a prince of pilots and a leading neural in the newest navigation system, he plans for perfection and thus makes for certainty in conclusions. The New Zealand Cabinet should strike - Kingsford Smith gold medal ?-"■ thus making commercial aviation possible with Australia and the rest of the Empire and the outside world, - |