A QUESTION?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 9

A QUESTION?

OUGHT HUSBANDS TO FLY?

BY A PILOT'S WIFE. " How can you let your husband fly?" a woman asked me at the aerodrome on a recent Saturday. Without waiting' for a reply, she added, " I should never give my John permission." Poor John! I feel sorry for him because he has a good record as a war pilot, and now, married to a woman who did not share that earlier experience, is doomed to surrender a pleasure, and a possible opportunity for usefulness, which flying men are loath to give up. However, he is truly devoted to his wifa and will, no doubt, respect her wishes,• while feeling thwarted for the rest of his lifo.

Later in the day the same question was repeated with consternation by another friend whoso husband had just substituted flying for his former radio craze. He wants to be a student at Ihumata as soon as the list thins out. Frankly, I sympathised with her a little more than with the first one, for her husband is a careless person who receives far more summonses for reckless motor driving than anyone else in his home town. With two little babies to consider, she would need some courage to see her husband go for his pilot's ticket. However, she is perfectly able-bodied, can. well support herself in case of need, and hence refuses to dampen his ardour, though she candidly admits her fears. The third woman I did not meet until wo had arrived back in town. In reply to a question she said gaily, " Oh, dear, no. Tom did not go near the aerodrome, for I told him at lunch to-day that if he loved me he would not go. He did not!" she said, her eyes sparkling in triumph. Here was a woman who played upon her husband's affection for her to keep him away from the pageant for fear he might become enthusiastic —not to become a pilot, oh! no!—but merely to have a few minutes' flight some time when he could scrape up the necessary pound. They have no children, and she is a young, capable woman, well able to fend for herself. She made me wonder just how many women in Auckland were like her. More than one think. I feel sure.

Now, it seems to me that no woman, unless she be an invalid or the mother of a large family of little children, has any right to prevent her husband from flying if that is his major hobby. Most wives regard the rolling pin as a means of coercion a littlj out of date; still, many feel they can use its modern form of mental ai d moral suasion without restraint. They fail to see that no wife has such complete possession of her husband that she can with impunity bar his freedom of choice. If she dares trespass on this freedom sho takes from him his chief attribute of manhood, and decrees him to be her slave.

Personally, I admit I have qualms for myself and "my children, but several other pilots' wives I know are so accustomed to flying themselves they regard it as most people do motoring. It is probably all a matter of time when the rest of us do likewise. Within the next few years flying will become so popular and customary in Auckland no one will dream of asking either wife or husband for permission to fly when both can pilot their own planes.