EXIT LA PATRIE

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 280, 4 December 1907, Page 4

EXIT LA PATRIE

La Patrie sailing away into the blue ethereal, proudly leaving this mundane planet as the 200 discomfited men who pitted their strength against hers, and the whole of France watched her vanish—such was the spectacle that will have cast a gloom over the volatile French nation. When London was elated at the sight of Nulli Secundus sailing steadily round the dome of St. Pauls, or poised over the busy multitudes in the Strand, a thrill of pride was experienced that at last, as in the case of the submarine, the Saxon had caught to up the ingenious Gaul, but alas, that night the winds that in air had helped the great air-ship to skim with the speed of a rail express, wrecked lier in spite of all efforts of her guard when fast,at anchor.f) And so with La Patrie. The finest airship the world had seen, sailing proudly over France with the telescopes of on her; the joy of

the boulevardier, and, stationed at the fortress of Verdun, the menace of the enemies of La Belle franco, spurned restraint when the strong winds whispered to her and called her aloft. There is something sad in the loss of this the greatest and best cruiser of the air the world has ever seen, but. there is also something poetic in that last glimpse of her, vanishing upright and unimpaired into space, bearing a message mayhap for the Martians. A few centuries ago and with an unimagintive people she would have replaced Van der Decken's famous craft in the popular folk lore, and should she descend in some still wild country, there is no knowing what convulsion she may cause. Of course France has promptly ordered, more ships of like model, but there have been many airships and only one Patrie, and the moral that her loss, and that of teaches, is the old moral emphasised by Mr Hiram Maxim—that we will never iconquer the air until we conquer it with bird-like machines heavier than, not lighter than, the atmosphere. We may perfect and control the balloon until we have another Patrie. But they are after all bat halting steps. The final path leads elsewhere.