THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1930. AN AIRPORT FOR AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20641, 13 August 1930, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1930. AN AIRPORT FOR AUCKLAND.

By putting to other local bodies its three questions about an airport for Auckland, the City Council has compelled attention .to the practical aspect of the subject and brought action within sight. When should the land be acquired and the establishing of the airport be begun? Who should be financially responsible for the establishment and operations of the airport ? What form of control would be most suitable? These questions bring the subject out of the clouds. There has already been undertaken by the City Council a preliminary inquiry as to a suitable site.' That inquiry is not complete. It is possible that sufficient data have been gathered for decision, but that is not certain. However, beforo the decision is reached there is need to come to a workable scheme for providing the airport and managing it. To those disposed to suggest that there is no call to be in a hurry it is sufficient answer to say that other countries have already gone far ahead in commercial aviation, that this country must before long have its air lines, that private flying is becoming popular in the Dominion through the founding of aero clubs, and that circumstances generally make it desirable that practical thought • should be given to the provision of airports in the chief centres of population, although their actual establishment need not be put in hand immediately. The time is fully'ripe for preparatory work, and decisions concerning this ought not to be deferred. A conference of local bodies, called by the City Council, has agreed that Auckland must be provided with an up-to-date airport. That conference is to meet again on September .17, and by that date minds should be made up on the questions of practical policy. Other centres are moving in the matter. The difficulties of providing adequate ground organisation for civil flight,' which were mentioned in Major-General Young's report laid on the table of, the House this week, are being facedselected areas on possible . air lines are being constantly examined and classified by officers of the air force.-; two commercial companies have been engaged in aerial taxi work for the past eighteen months. An end has been put to the wingless condition of the Dominion. The organisation of alighting places is a pre-requisite to effective commercial flight within it.

The first question put by the City Council as an outcome of the adjourned conference, the question of the time when the requisite land should be acquired and the construction of the airport be begun, ought not to occasion difficulty. The land should be acquired as soon as possible. Values in any suitable area, which must be reasonably adjacent to the city, are now at a favourable point'for purchasing. To defer is to court additional expense. The terms of purchase are, of course, a matter for careful consideration, but an option should be taken as soon as selection is made and terms arc arranged. There is ample legislative authority for compulsory acquisition, if need be. On the related point of the time when work should be begun on the site, circumstances will dictate the answer, but it should be .taken for granted that, before very long, sufficient must be done to give facilities for handling the few aircraft with which longdistance commercial services will be inaugurated. Development of these facilities can afterwards proceed with the development of the services—no more than a little ahead of them. Concerning financial responsibility, this should be shared by the local bodies within what is broadly known as Auckland, as is done for other purposes an area wider than the city proper. The extent and basis of the responsibility are matters for the adjourned conference, but it should be recognised that tlie service of the airport will be of value to the whole metropolitan district, although a differential sharing of the responsibility ought to be found practicable. Two courses are open when the question of administrative control is faced. Either a new local authority must be created or an existing local body must be given control. The first course is not advisable. Auckland in the past has been plagued with a plethora of public bodies, a of tilings explained by history but not excused by it. The movement toward their reduction has been wise, and it would lie an uneconomical as well as retrograde step to add a new one to administer the airport. Although the project is new, there is no necessity for the creation of a now authority to control it. But if an existing body is to be entrusted with the control there can be littlo doubt that it should be the Harbour Board. An airport for Auckland, as has already been assumed in discussing the merits of possible sites, should be situated somewhere on the water--1 front, although not necessarily on

the limited fringe of the municipality itself. Commercial aviation in New Zealand, for reasons based on its configuration, will be mainly of a type employing hydroplanes. Its bases will therefore need to make considerable provision for craft alighting on and taking off from water, whatever provision is made at them for land-planes. This being so, it is reasonable to entrust administration to the Harbour Board, which already has control of the extensive waterfront on which, at some point, the airport should be located. For tlje City Council to be the controlling authority is not nearly so feasible a suggestion. , It has rightly taken a leading part in initiating consideration of the project, but it does not follow that it should be expected to administer that project when it materialises. On the other hand, the operations of an airport are so closely akin to those of a harbour—the very name given to these modern bases is a token of this—that the Harbour Board, alone of existing bodies, is fitted for the administrative task. This matter, liko all others to be discussed and settled' soon by the conference, should be considered in the light of conditions even more than of precedent.