The Hawera Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 1926. BY AIR TO AUSTRALIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 August 1926, Page 6

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 1926. BY AIR TO AUSTRALIA.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Man jjstofci, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville. Pat-ea, Waverley, Mokoiaj Whakamara, Ohaugai. Mere mere. Fraeer Read and A. re rata.

<»— Although he has been preceded by three other pilots in the flight from Europe to Australia, one of those, flying from England six years ago and taking much tho .same route as that followed on the present journey, the enthusiastic reception give to Air Alan Cobh am by tho people of Darwin, and the slieaf of congratulatory messages which he has received from all over tho world, bear testimony both to the romantic appeal, and the practical worth of the undertaking which he has in hand. Because of the glamour that attaches to first conquests in every field of adventure, the names of Ross and Keith Smith are inseparably bound up with the history of the Eng-land-Australian air line. And Cobham, fellow-countryman of the two brothers —he was born in Sydney —would be tho last to seek to detract from the fame which they so gamely won.. l r et in some ways the latest achievement is a greater performance than the first. Ross Smith, venturing, as it, were, upon the great unknown, studied conditions of weather and season, so far as that was possible, and wisely chose for his attempt a time when the signs were most propitious. Now Cobham, with the experiences of the Smiths and AfcIntosh to guide him, has carried the work a step beyond) the pioneering stage by deliberately choosing the worst possible season for his flight, in order to test the practicability of an all-the-year-roiiiid service. “It is my belief,” he said l a few months ago in explaining the motive behind his proposal, “that the thing most essential to the future success of British Empire trade is the rapid development of air routes within the Empire, thus speeding up communications with its utmost corners, so that our far-fluug Empnc

is, so far as its 'communications' are concerned, far-flung no more.” And, since it stand-a to reason that communication which . can bo established when conditions are at their very worst, should be easily maintained; in favourable circumstances, Cobham elected to fly over one of the hottest regions on earth at the hottest season of the year and over one of the wettest regions in the height of the rainy season. For the notable manner in which lie has overcome these handicaps of Nature, liis own skill and the efficiency of British aircraft engineering divide the honour. It is happily appropriate that the route which was pioneered by Australians should be brought to- the threshold of commercial utilisation by another Australian; but, whatever his country, Alan Cobham was the one airman of the present day for the task. In aerial survey work lie has an unchallengable, record of service, return flights from London to Palestine, London to Rangoon, and l London to Cape Town having preceded the present adventure., The trip to Rangoon was made as pilot for Sir Sefton Branekner, Director of Civil Aviation, who was surveying the possibilities of the Cairo to Karachi. rout,e, which, the Imperial Airway Company will start operating with five ’planes next January. The Cape Town flight, rich with incident of the Central African jungle, demonstrated! the possibilities of rapid! communication with hitherto isolated, parts of that Continent, and already negotiations are in progress for the establishment of air services in the Sudan and in South Africa. Cobham was ten days longer than Ross Smith in reaching Port Darwin, the tragic death of his mechanic, Elliott, at Basra, and the breaking of a strut at Karachi being responsible for the delay. It had been the pilot’s hope to reduce Smith’s time by a week or so; but he will have opportunity to do that on the return journey. Meanwhile, Australians — and New Zealanders, too —are brought nearer to the day of regular air communication with the Homeland. The Dominion is so situated in! relation to the rest of the world, and our internal distances are relatively so short, that our main hope from commercial aviation lies in the shortening of the journey Homo. Australia, on the other hand, has much to expect from the development of air services within her own border. Alan Cobham himself has said that Australia offers the greatest opportunities in the world for commercial aviation, and that her existing services are, in some ways, already among the most efficient in the world. This opinion is borne out by the record of the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service Company, whose machines _> have now flown just under half a million miles without mishap to passengers or staff —which result an English technical journal describes as ‘'the finest example of real commercial aviation yet made public. ’ ’ But tlieso services, valuable as tliev have proved, and capable still of untold expansion as the Australian North- and West develop, are vet the Commonwealth’s own affairs. Por the realisation of Cobham’s ideal of, as he expresses it, “a farflung Empire far-flung no more,” Australia has to look along the chain of islands that links her to Asia, and so on through Burma, across India, up the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, Europe and Hendon. That is the way Cobham lias come as the herald, it may be, of future argosies of commerce; that is the way he will return, beating a path to his home in the Old World from his homeland in (he New.