CENTAURUS TOUR

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 January 1938, Page 8

CENTAURUS TOUR

ARRIVAL AT LYTTELTON SCENES IN THE SUNSHINE [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, January 3. Gloomv weather and low-lying fogover Lyttelton, this morning, blackened tha prospects for the arrival of the Centaurus at Lyttelton, but by 10 o’clock the morning was gloriously fine, and the great flying-boat made her debut in the South Island in perfect weather. The flight from Wellington, was made in one hour thirty-four minutes. The Centaurus experienced fog for part of the trip, but from Cape Camp'bell south she had a clear passage. The Centaurus came into Lyttelton harbour over Quail Island, and landed in the outer harbour at. 10. S a.m. She slowly taxied into the inner harbour. and was moored to a buoy.

The crew and passengers came ashore for an official welcome. Seldom has Lyttelton seen such a crowd as that which eagerly awaited the flying boat’s arrival. Thousands packed the wharves, Evan’s Pass, and hillside houses overlooking the harbour. . While the Aero Club machines circled overhead, the Centaurus slowly came in over the harbour, making a wide sweep by Corsair Bay to take the water facing upwind towards the heads. Escorted by launches and yachts, the Centaurus taxied slowly in between the moles, using only two outboard of her four motors.

As the Centaurus came slowly up to her mooring buoys, 200 yards out from the reception jetty, lines were thrown out. and the flying boat was made fast at the first attempt. Cameras clicked and heads craned to get a better view as the gleaming aluminium hull swung round. Just at this moment, an added touch of spectacle was given to the occasion by the arrival of the Union Airways liner, which circled low over the port, in salutation before speeding away on her northward flight. The Harbour Board launch, carrying the Harbourmaster (Capt. J. Plowman), nosed under the great wing of the Centaurus, and soon was speeding towards the wharf with her crew and passengers. As the launch appi cached the landing steps, applause and cheering broke out from the huge crowd in the vicinity of the wharves. At the steps. Captain Burgess was welcomed by the Chairman of the Haibour Board (Mr. R. T. McMillan). As passengers on board the Centaurus, were three Ministers, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Jones and Mr. Langstone, Messrs N. S. Falla, managei of the Union Steam Ship Coy.. Mr. F. N. Clarke, manager of Union Airways. Mr B A. Blvthe. chief pilot of Union Airways, Mr. A. G. Gerrand, another, Union Airways pilot, Group Captain Cochrane. Group Captain Wilkes, Wing Commander Isitt, and Captain Burgess, snr., father of the commander of the Centaurus. Hundreds of people in Christchurch were disappointed this morning, when the Centaurus did not pass over the city as anticipated. Due to fog, the flying-boat did not follow the oi dinary course, and approached Lyttelton from the south. It is likely a flight will be made over the city this afternoon. The machine will re-fuel today and leave for Dunedin at 6 a.m. to-morrow.

TRAIN TRAFFIC FAILURE CHRISTCHURCH, January 3. The transportation of over 10,000 people from Christchurch to Lyttelton, this morning, to see the Centaurus arrive, was a task that the Railway Department did not discharge to the full satisfaction of its patrons, though Mr. E. S. Brittenden, District Traffic Manager, subsequently blamed irresponsible hoodlums for the worst hold-up. This was the stopping of the 9.30 train from Christchurch in the tunnel by an emergency signal, but many passengers on that train were already on the point of exasperation, when they boarded the train. The Railway Department ran a 20niinute service using three trains, but after eight o'clock, each was filled as soon as it came to the platform. Extra police were called for to control the crowd on the platform before 9 o'clock, and the train that left at 9.10 was watched out of the station by more people than were aboard. It was expected that the 9.30 train would leave as its predecessor had done, from the platform whence the Lyttelton train is usually dispatched. The crowd waited there. When this trains was brought in to the express platform, there was a wild rush for it. Many people foreseeing the train would be unbearably crowded, would have abandoned their intention of going to Lyttelton, but they were borne along in the rush, and forced under pressure into carriages. At stations along the route, more passengers knowing this train was their last possible opportunity of reaching Lyttelton in time to see the Centaurus arrive, forced their way into the already crowded carriages, and there were 1,260 passengers in 19 carriages, when the train cleared Heathcote station. Then the train stopped suddenly, fwith the guard’s van outside the tunnel, and the rest of the train inside. Women screamed and children started to cry. Men asked each other what had happened. In one carriage, someone wondered aloud whether the next train would crash into them, and the thought nearly started a panic. Fortunately, a man was able to adopt the tone of one having authority, and to assure the nervous ones. Similar reassuring white lies allayed the incipient panic in other carriages.

BLENHEIM DISAPPOINTED BLENHEIM, January 3. Keen disappointment is felt in Marlborough at the failure of the Centaurus to adhere to the itinerary, providing for a flight Over the Sounds, Picton and Blenheim, en route to Lyttelton, this morning, especially as the weather was ideal for viewing the flying-boat. . Coupled with the disapis. a feeling of resentment at the omission of the authorities to give adequate information of the c ange in the plans. Various radio announcements resulted in general conr^ ardin g the intentions, but “Iw i^ he last it: was confidently exS pi th i at . the Centaurus would fly t en,l eim, especially as announcein^ 1 s'tat^of 117 after 8-30 a,m " people streets and vn X^ eCtailcy occupied the stieets and vantage points in buildings where they patiently waited in sweltering heat, it was not until a Was circulated, that the machine had passed Kaikoura, that the

hopeful watchers gave up sky-gazing. In the absence of an explanation, the feeling locally is that the district has a genuine grievance, in not being advised of the departure from the scheduled itinerary. SAMOAN CLIPPER. < AUCKLAND, January 2. The! Pan-American' Samoan, clipper impressively took off at 3 a.m. to-day from Waitemata Harbour on her second .return trip across the Pacific. She alighted on the harbour at Pago Pago at 3.35 p.m. to-day (New Zealand time). The first stage of the trip inaugurating the first comme cial air service between New Zealand and the United States thus occupied 12hr 35min, Stowed. aboard the clipper were 3731 b of air mail, and between 7 and 81b of express freight. AT PAGO PAGO. , (Received January 3, 8 a.m.) , PAGO PAGO, January 2. The Samoan Clipper has arrived. U.S.A. SUPER-PLANE. LOS ANGELES, December 31. Mr Lockheed has announced the delivery to the United States Army of a new ’plane, which was tested at 350 miles an hour, at an altitude of nineteen to twenty-one thousand feet. “STRATOSPHERE” EXPERIMENT LONDON, January 1. The “News-Chronicle’s” Brussels correspondent says: Experiments which the stratospherist, Dr. Piccaid, believes will revolutionise air transport. were conducted in a speciallymade sealed cell, in which Lieut. Stijn, holder of the Belgian altitude record, with Doctor Abrahams, is spending a week under pressure equivalent to an altitude of 12,000 feet, with the object of recording human reactions during a. long spell in the upper atmosphere. After six days, however, the experiment ended, last night, owing to Dr. Abrahams collapsing. He recovered as altitude “pressure” gradually lowered, but Colonel Sillevaerts, who was in charge of the experiment, decided it was becoming dangerous.

Both Abrahams and Stijn emerged looking very tired.