AUSTRALIAN AIR SERVICES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 13 September 1927, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN AIR SERVICES.

INCREASE OP FEDERAL GR ANT

ROUTES TO ENCIRCLE THE CONTINENT.

SYDNEY, Aug. 25. Actuated by the urgent necessity of bringing Australian civil aviation i line with developments in Europe and America, the Federal Government has decided to increase the Federal grant to civil air services by £200,000 a year to £315,000. The plans for new services will bring the most distant portions of the Commonwealth within ioui davs’ journey of one or other of the capital cities, and will virtually mean the encirclement of the continent the air services. In making the announcement of the Cabinet’s decision, the Prime Minister (Mr. S. M. Bruce) said that considerable additional services would be commenced immediately. One of the firs would be the opening of an ainvay across the continent from Adelaide to Perth. Another of the new services in contemplation' was to operate from Cammooweal, on the eastern edge of the Northern Territory, to the railhead of the line from Darwin—a comparativelv short aerial link of OoU miles. This would ensure that every week a mail would leave Brisbane for Darwin and arrive there three days later, in comparison with the present mail once a month, reaching Darwin eight davs after despatch from Brisbane. In order to link up tins service with the one now connecting the three railheads of the lines running west from Brisbane, Rockhampton, and Townsville, it was necessary to organise an aerial route from Brisbane to Charleville. This section of 400 miles would reduce the time between Cloncurry and Brisbane from three days and a lialf by rail to 2i hours bx air and in addition would have a marked effect on the efficiency and value of the service now operating m Central Queensland. Another of the new services would be between Brisbane and Sydney, reducing the time of the journey from 27 hours by tram to seven hours by air. It was also possible that a service would he organised between Melbourne and Hobart. . The money to be made availably is considered sufficient for subsidy purposes, for the provision of aerodromes along the various routes and their maintenance, for the additional cost of administration and supervision, and for all other activities respecting the development of civil aviation, other than those of airships. It will permit of a measure of increased pilot training, and of considerable improvement to the terminal aerodromes at the capital cities. “My attendance at the Imperial Conference,” declared Mr. Bruce, “has led me to be assured that aircraft have introduced a significant factor into the economic and social relationship of mankind, and the time is not too soon for Australia to take much greater advantage of its possibilities than has been don© in the past. Great sums of money are now being expended by various Governments in Europe and America to hasten this development. Australia’s scattered population, long distances, and perfect flight conditions make it desirable that we should exploit the new method of transportation to the full. In doing so, we shall not merely reap social and commercial advantages already demonstrated _by our past successes in this direction, but also contribute something substantial in men, machines, and aerodrome’s to the country’s defence.”