The Grey River Argus MONDAY, July 3, 1944. PASSING OF A NOTABLE AIRMAN.

Grey River Argus, 3 July 1944, Page 4

The Grey River Argus MONDAY, July 3, 1944. PASSING OF A NOTABLE AIRMAN.

Not because he ranked second to no other New Zealander as a pioneer aviator, but because of his initiative in the organisation and maintenance of a unique air service, the death of Captain J. C. Mercer closes a career which will long remain memorable in the annals alike of the Dominion and this particular part of it. Only a rare aptitude and interest in the newest method of locomotion, combined with a constructive and masterful character could explain the enterprise shown by him since the days when, as a young man, he made his first ascent in a balloon. Since then he had spent twelve thousand hours in the air, and had thus travelled one hundred times as many miles in that medium. As an aviator he first made a name as an instructor, and before the present war it used to be said that few flyers in this country remained active who had not been to some extent indebted to him for tuition. He pioneered a passenger service in Canterbury nearly a quarter of a century since, and later entered another ' service which took him over Cook Strait soon after that stretch of water had been for the first time crossed. Before coming ten years ago to the West Coast, Captain Mercer had made many notable cross country flights, as well as travelling almost the length of the Dominion on commercial trips, with comparatively frequent stops en route. He was indeed the ideal airman to launch the service which since 1934 has been a characteristic and integral factor of travel on the West Coast. Whereas regular air voyages elsewhere in New Zealand have been possible only to the extent that wealthy concerns provided the facilities, the West Coast has had a service which for convenience and regularity put it in a place by itself. As remarked by the Minister of Defence in his tribute to the deceased airman, the venture was a foremost means of opening up the previously isolated stretch of country in the more distant half of South Westland, lit had been necessary, on account of the sparse, scattered population, to undertake traffic and an itinerary that no other service in New Zealand’ would cater for, and the marvel has been that it became so remarkably adaptable. Nothing appeared to daunt the director, and it may be that his equal will not soon be found in that respect, although the trail he blazed has since been so well established that the company should ibe able to continue it as successfully as it has been up to the present. Nevertheless it certainly would not have become a reality had not there been so capable and enterprising a manager, whose record in this regard should serve after the war as an example for emulators in other districts. While Captain Mercer’s death, by the manner of it, has but placed emphasis on his devotion to aviation, as a commercial service, the circumstances emphasise equally a feature of his enterprise which has distinguished it from other aviation ventures in the Dominion. This feature is the exceptionally difficult character of the terrain over which his company operates. No more inhospitable route could be imagined than that over the forests which cover so much of the territory served by the Company, and in one of which he concluded his last flight. flu the years tq come, when aircraft, as a result of wax' time improvements, shall have become more reliable than 'they hitherto have (been, Captain Mercer’s pioneering work will be quoted and lauded.