AN ILL-TIMED VISIT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 4 April 1934, Page 3

AN ILL-TIMED VISIT

African Village Loses Weekly Pictures Film fans at Victoria West—a little African settlement on the London-to-Capo Town air n -to—had to go without their weekly movie show recently owing to the demands of one of the great four-engined mail planes which paid the community an ill-timed visit.

The Atalanta, bound for the Cape, landed at Victoria West as dusk fell.’ A small deputation of local residents, according to the story told in “The Times/' waited on the chief pilot with a request that he would defer his departure till the following morning. Although gratified by this apparent desire for his company, be explained that he could not alter his schedule except for very urgent reasons. The true significance of the request then came to light. It was the night of the weekly cinema performance. If the air liner went on her way, the station would have to keep in wireless communication with her for three hours. And for this the local power station would have to supply the necessary current, which also meant that as it could not supply both, the cinema would have to give way. So the liner sped on her way and little Victoria West dutifully kept in wireless touch —without its weekly film.