NEW AIR MAIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21875, 10 August 1934, Page 11

NEW AIR MAIL

NEW GUINEA SERVICE MR. ULM'S SUCCESS TROPICAL HEAT AND ICE [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, August 2 Through extremes of tropical heat to .snow and ice, Mr. C. T. P. Ulm's now famous monoplane. Faith in Australia, has flown, in three days, with the first air mail from. New Guinea to Australia. He arrived at Mascot at 9.30 a.m. to-day, and :s now on his way to Melbourne. Four hours and a-half after leaving Brisbane, the machine grounded at Mascot half an hour ahead of schedule, and splashed its way to the hangar. "The flight was carried out according to schedule, and in the usual quiet and interesting manner," said Mr. Ulm. "The 500-miles water hop, between Port Douglas and Moresby, was probably the most delightful of all the flights; certainly the inost comfortable."

Mr. Ulm spoke with amazement of the aviation work being done in News Guinea, "Take, for instance, the town of Wau," he said. "Everything and everyone in the town have been carried there by aeroplanes. "There are motor-cars and motor works, houses, an ice cream factory, and heavy boilers for mining, and even racehorses—all carried over the mountains by air. Even the racecourse fittings have been carried in this way, besides huge dredges and billiard tables, it is rather amusing to hear of tho Administration's proposal to spend £400,000 on a road to the place, when the people are quite satisfied with tho air service."

Mr. Ulm said there would be no difficulty in running similar air services to centres of population in distant parts of Australia.

The lesson of the flight, said Mr. Ulm, was that it demonstrated that there would bo no difficulty in running air services bet-ween Australia and New Guinea, along the route he had taken. v

Mr. J. R. Halligan, of the Prime Minister's Department, said the flight was very enjoyable. Approaching Lae, they found the heat very intense, but in the climb of 13,500 'feet over the mountains the cold became exceedingly severe. The mail carried from Lae was 19,188 packets, and from Port Moresby it jras about the same.