THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1921. EMPIRE AIRSHIP SERVICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17909, 11 October 1921, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1921. EMPIRE AIRSHIP SERVICES.

One of the subjects arising out of the Imperial Conference upon which Parliament will be required to reach a decision is that of airship communication. The conference was unable to form definite conclusions because the establishment of an Empire air service depends entirely | upon the willingness of the United | Kingdom and Dominion GovernI ments to find the capital or to subsidise private enterprise. It was, | however, sufficiently impressed by : the report of an expert subj committee, on which Sir Ross Smith ; represented Australia and New Zea- | land, to ask the United Kingdom i Government to reconsider the proI posed scrapping of airship material j and the disbandment of the airship ! personnel. The position now is that ■ the British Government is retaining ; its airships and their staffs at a cost | of £1800 a month pending decision by the Governments of the Do- ■ minions whether they will under- | take experimental flights. If not, the airships will be dismantled, a I course which, apart from any inj tcrest the Dominions may have in I airships, appears open to criticism, j since the airship organisation reprc- | sents the accumulated experience I gained by an expenditure of at least I £40,000,000, and places Britain in | the forefront of this branch of aviation. That, however, is the j affair of the United Kingdom. If the Dominions want the airships I they are to be had for the asking llf not they will presumably be scrapped in the interest of economy.

There is n> gainsaying the attraci tiveness of the proposal to utilise | the airship to diminish the vast distances separating the British States. If New Zealand can be brougnt within eleven or twelve days of Lon don there will be great Imperial j gain, and the prospects of the Do- ! minion as a field for British immigration and the investment of British capital will be sensibly enhanced. The weight of expert evidence is that airship services T o the Outer ftominions are practicable; but they must needs be developed cautiously, with a due regard for certain factors still in doubt because not tested by sufficiently long flights. The; only question for the Domini ins' decision, therefore, is whether they are prepared to undertake the cost of the preliminary development. Alternative programmes have been preferred by the expert sub-committee. The first, involving a cost of £540,000, contemplates a year's experimental and preparatory work. It would not be conclusive, and if the Dominions decide to give airships a trial they will probably prefer to undertake the two-year programme, which would cost £1,339,000, or two and a-half times as much as the shorter programme, but would yield results at least five times as valuable. The capital Expenditure out of this sum would include the commissioning of L7l, the largest of British airships, for commercial purposes, and the establishment of a complete base, with shed, in India. During the period a monthly service would be run to Egypt, and gradually extended to India, while during the last two or three months demonstration flights toward South Africi would be made. At this stage the various Governments would be able j to appraise the commercial possij bilities of the airship fairly accur- ! ately, and if they were deemed suffil ciently encouraging the serious ! capital expenditure would have to 'be faced. For the preliminary i flights the existing British airships j would suffice. Before Australia and j New Zealand could be linked up new j construction would have to be j undertaken. It is estimated that ten ! or twelve ships of the 4,000,000 cubic | feet type would be required, and iv i would be necessary to establish per- | manent bases in South Africa and I Australia and presumably, though | the report is silent on this point, J either a mooring-mast or a base in New Zealand. With this equipment lit would be possible in the sixth | year to operate regular fortnightly i services to India, South Africa, and \ Australia, with an extension 'n prospect to New Zealand. The; ! capital expenditure additional to j the two-year programme is estimated j at £6,046,000, and the cost of upkeep j and operation would rise to a maxi ! mum of £1,094,000.

Such, briefly, are the financial 'prospects of the airship scheme. 7t is apparent that further developI ments depend upon the Kmpire ! Governments providing the money, j either directly or in the form of j heavy subsidies to private enter- | prise. The expert sub-committee I has made no attempt to estimate | the probable revenue, and it would be wise to rate the earning powers of the airships on a very conservative basis for a beginning. The existing airships can carry up to 40 passengers and 7 tons of cargo, and the larger ships which would i follow might carry 50 passengers and | 13 tons "of mails or freight. It may ! be assumed the airship would quickly gain a monopoly for the carriage of business letters, but its revf'iiue outside this source would bj highly speculative. It will neces- '. s inly be many years before the air- \ ship services will be placed on a ; paving basis, and it is for the Dominions to decide whether they are pri-parnij tn face the capital expenditure and initial loss on working. Be- ■ ore the Parliament of New Zealand can come to n decision it will hi to :i~i-erlairi in what pro--1 portions the eost will be shared :im '" l " 'he CovfrnmenUs o| the t'nji.-d Kntrdorr K.-.uih Africa, Aus-t-r-d;a, India, and New Zealand

Equal contributions would scarcely bo equitable. In view of the circumstance that it will be at least six years before she will benefit, New Zealand might reasonably ask that her proportion be made a smell one. Till the financial responsibility of the Dominion is defined, Parliament cannot consider this question intelligently, since finance, though not the only, is likely to be the determining, factor. A statement by Mr. Massey on this point will be awaited with interest.