INSPECTED FROM THE AIR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 1 December 1938, Page 10

INSPECTED FROM THE AIR

BACKBLOCK HILL COUNTRY ; MARLBOROUGH ADJUSTMENT COMMISSION (United Pres* Association 1 BLENHEIM. This Day The advantages of the use of an aero- ' plane in carrying out inspections of backblock hill country were demonstrated. possibly in a unique fashion, this morning when the Marlborough Aero Club's Waco cabin machine was chartered by the Marlborough No 2 Adjustment Commission for the purpose of examining several properties in the . Sounds district. In the ordinary course I visits to the areas concerned by launch and on foot would have occupied at j least two days, but by air over 200 miles were covered in one hour forty-five minutes, and nine more comprehensive investigations were possible than W'ould I have been the case otherwise. The members of the commission, Messrs G. M. Spence, A R Graham, ( and E. Reid, piloted by E. F. Goldaway. took off from Blenheim and flew over Queen Charlotte. Pelorus, and Kenepuru Sounds, circling the properties several times at a low altitude. From the air the members of the Commission found it possible to gain a very much better idea of the class of country comprised in the properties involved than would have been possible by clambering over them on foot. The distinction between the different classes of land w’as very marked. One thing which unfavourably impressed the Commission was the evidence of extensive slipping and erosion in some parts of the Sound that had been denuded of bush.