The NortherN Advocate Daily “Northland First" MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1937. HISTORIC FLIGHTS

Northern Advocate, 27 December 1937, Page 4

The NortherN Advocate Daily “Northland First"

MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1937. HISTORIC FLIGHTS

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

When man loses that blessed possession which enables him to contemplate with wonder the glory of the heavens, the beauties of nature, or the products of man’s inventive genius, he loses that which makes life really worth living. When he reaches i that stage, he is well on the way to mental and spiritual death, unless he take prompt and effective steps to revivify his dying faculties. In the closing week of the passing year, there is truly material to fan the enthusiasm which should find a place in the breast of every human being in this Dorriinion. There is provided a remarkable demonstration of man’s conquest of the air. Yesterday, there flew high above Whangarei a silver mass which alternately hid behind cloud banks and reflected gleaming brightness of the sun’s rays. This great bird of the air, which was carrying eight people under the protection of its wings, was in Honolulu on Thursday last; yesterday afternoon it descended as gently as a falling feather on the waters of the Waitemata in the presence of a great concourse of Auckland people. True, the Clipper was not a stranger to the Waitomata, but the fact that she had already flown .from America to New Zealand and back again, and in the meantime had charted great air routes over the Pacific, should have served but to increase wonder and enthusiasm on the part of those who witnessed her arrival yesterday. As we wrote this morning, another great air liner, the Gentaunts, was well on her way across the Tasman Sea. She is making the pioneer flight of what it is hoped will soon become a regular aerial service linking .England and New Zealand by a span of ten or twelve days. This morning, a wireless message from the plane announced that she was making good headway, and that when she was a hundred miles from the Dominion’s coast her commander, a New Zealand boy, would hold a wireless telephone conversation with his father, who resides in Wellington. Such a>

thing has been done before, but it is indeed a matter for wonder. This afternoon, the Centaurus made history by roach-, ing the Waitcmata in accordance with timetable, and coming to rest alongside the ; Clipper. Surely the sight of two j great flying boats, met together in circumstances never dreamed of when white men first camej to New Zealand moved the hearts of beholders. Man’s conquest of the air, which is only one way of saying man’s discovery of another of the hidden mysteries of an omnipotent Creator, is a subject of wonder. Passing to the practical from what may be regarded as the abstract, the presence at Auckland of Imperial Airways’ Centaurns and the Pan-American Airways’ Clipper is a matter nf very great, commercial, importance. The Clipper has already demonstrated that San Francisco, is only three or four days distant from. Auckland, while radial services based on Pacific islands make contact with the Asian Continent a- matter of similar brevity. The coming of the Centaurns may be taken as a definite reminder that New Zealand will not long remain an isolated unit of the British Empire, for it may be accepted that the near future will see the extension to this Dominion of the air services now connecting Britain and Australia. In due course, there will exist a network of mail and passenger services linking the English - speaking peoples, and, through them, the nations of the world. The meeting of the Cdll'aurus and the Clipper on the Waitemata Harbour in the closing days of 1937 is indeed an historic and significant event. It draws pointed attention to the place the Pacific is destined to take in world development, and to the possibilities for good or. ill., which the annihilation of space represents.. Yesterday and today the planes -which flew over the waters of the Pacific and the Tasman wore messengers' of peace. May future aerial visitors to this country never have other mission. 1