ROYAL N.Z. TOUR WILL BE MAINLY DONE BY PLANE

Grey River Argus, 22 April 1948, Page 4

ROYAL N.Z. TOUR WILL BE MAINLY DONE BY PLANE

WELLINGTON, April 20. The. King and Queen and Princess Margaret are likely to arrive in New Zealand early in February. No definite date or complete itinerary can be fixed until the Undersecretary of Internal Affairs, Mr J. W. Heenan, has visited Buckingham Palace, but it known that the tour will be made largely by air. Before Mi' Heenan leaves shortly by air wr a hurried visit to England, he will be supplied with a tentative itinereu-y which he will submit for approval. As soon as the itinerary is approved by the Royal Family, it will be announced.

When members of the Royal Family have visited New Zealand before, they have been taken through the country by special train and the people in out-of-the-way centres had at least a glimpse of them. This time the whole itinerarv win h s used primarily on the suitability of various airports. MOTOR CAR TRAVEL

It is understood that the Royal familv will travel by motor car to a number of towns handy to central airports, but it is evident that if the people of New Zealand want to see the Royal Family, they will have to go to three or four main centres in each province. Mr Heenan has had frequent conferences with the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, The report of the eaptain of the King’s Flight Commodore E. H. Fielden) on-wt’hft recent inspection of New Zealand airfields has been discussed. The airports of the four main centres were found to be entirely satisfactory, as were a number of airfields in provincial centres. Improvements will have to be made to some of the smaller airfields. Others are out of the question. The Vickers Viking is a manoeuvrable . aircraft which could land at and take off from most New Zealand airfields, but no risks will be taken with the Rpval Family,. . (