AIR RACE PROPOSAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22543, 7 October 1936, Page 14

AIR RACE PROPOSAL

NUCLEUS OF PRIZE FUND OFFER TO INCREASE GIFT [iJY TELEGRAPH —OWN CO It 11ESPO NDE NT ] NAPIER. Tuesday An undertaking substantially to increase his offer should tho necessity arise, has been given by tho Napier business man who has already announced his willingness to givo £SOO as tho nucleus of a £SOOO prizo fund for tho proposed Sydney to Napier air raco in January. Means of raising the necessary finance for the venture has been discussed, and although no details are divulged, it is understood that an early start is to be made with the canvassing of individual citizens, local bodies, and citizens' organisations. Tho Thirty Thousand Club is entering enthusiastically into the promotion of the scheme with tho object of obtaining tho required funds within the shortest possible period. The sponsor of the scheme is lending his fullest support in this connection.

Asked this morning for his reason in advancing the suggestion for an international air race from Australia to Napier, the sponsor said that his principal desire was to encourage, aviation in New Zealand and to bring this important link in national defence and commercial development to tho prominence it deserved.

The suggestion has been put forward that Miss Jean Batten, who is at present Hying from England to New Zealand, might be a competitor in the Tasman air race. Miss Batten's Percival Gull monoplane, in which she made her flight over the Atlantic, has now been fitted with (jxtra petrol accommodation and given a raijgc of 1300 miles.