THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1929. IMPERIAL AIRWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 4 April 1929, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1929. IMPERIAL AIRWAYS.

Five years ago, on All Fools' Day, "Imperial Airways, Limited," launched its enterprise. No doubt some wiseacres, not content with making sport of the "Limited," drew attention caustically to tho date. 'Twas ever thus. Noah, busy at his shipbuilding where no sea was in sight and when a drought prevailed, must have been treated to many a jibe. When England's first railwaytrain was scheduled to pull out there were folk loudly confident that it could not go ; and when it did they were just as certain that it could not stop. Commercial aviation, similarly disparaged, has similarly disappointed the croakers, and Imperial Airways has done its share in their discomfiture. Five years of continuous business; 4,000,000 miles of successful voyaging on its routes from London to the Continent; and more than 100,000 passengers safely carried: it is a record giving the retort courteous but complete to the would-be humorists. It is the more overwhelming as it is given publicity immediately after the opening of the company's six-day air-mail service from Croydon t-o India. Yet tho prophets cf evil have had their hours of self-congratulation in the course of the five years, for the undertaking has time and again been proved financially difficult. In spite of Government subsidies, it has been the rule to show a loss at the annual meetings of shareholders. Only in the fifth year has the company been able to declare a dividend. Until recently, therefore, "I told you so!" has had a vexing amount of "damnable iteration." Now at last it should cease. The triumph has been well won, and for this there must be given praise to both the directorate and the Government. Help expected from municipalities has been tardily given, but the company, by various means, including a race from London to Edinburgh between an air liner and the famous Flying Scotsman, has been lately trying to stimulate public interest in Britain; and the Government, by offering an increase of subsidy to encourage a weekly service to India, has been meritoriously eager to give assistance. Full success is assured.

The pessimists took their cue from the earlier struggles of the four companies operating beforo Imperial Airways was incorporated on their amalgamation. What they failed to note was that in other countries commercial aviation was becoming financially well established, and that improvements in aircraft were proceeding almost everywhere with great rapidity. Even in 1924 there were reliable indications that technical difficulties were being surely overcome, and some of the financial burdens of the company were temporarily occasioned by this very progress. For instance, the substitution of multi-engined for singleengincd machines was principally responsible in 1926 for the increase of the annual deficiency from £15,000 to £20,000. This substitution, although costly, was the inevitable price of efficiency. The company found also that its growing business necessitated an increasing outlay for maintenance and overhauls; but there could be no baulking at this, for on this expenditure depended largely the requisite public confidence, in the reliability of the company's craft. It has had its reward. Mishaps have been very rare. Such accidents as have happened have been usually suffered by "joyriders," as those are customarily called who hire the company's machines for their own flights. Even these casualties have been few. In the organised transport services, mishaps have been so infrequent that other means of travel appear to great disadvantage in comparison. On this reputation for safety and reliability in time-table, Imperial Airways bids fair to dispel utterly the fears with which such transport was viewed when its enterprise was begun.

What the company is doing to justify the first word in its title is, however, the subject of chief interest. Steadily it is pursuing the policy laid down by the Air Ministry —tho development of regular air linerj binding the Empire by a network of aerial communication. Sir Samuel Iloare, as Secretary of State for Air, has consistently asserted that "air lines are not matters for an individual country." This is an aspect of the enterprise to which the Dominions must give increasing attention. Up to the present, Britain has occupied a position on the geographical fringe of air communications. Germany has been to all intents and purposes the centre : it has been pointedly said, with reference to European aviation, that all roads lead to Berlin. It may be so yet for some time. But the carrying out of long-distance flights, particularly if the regular flying of tho Atlantic should become possible, will alter that, and perhaps even bring Britain into the centre of the web. In tho meantime, tho company's activities are assisting materially to lessen the sense of distance felt by some parts of the Empire, as well as to promote inland aviation in the British Isles themselves, and the celebration of its fifth birthday, after so splendid a period o? progress, is an occasion for Empire-wide gratification.