THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1937 PACIFIC AIR SERVICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22675, 12 March 1937, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1937 PACIFIC AIR SERVICE

An ocean air service bringing New Zealand within four days of San Francisco and five days of New York will be inaugurated before the end of the year under the agreement signed between the New Zealand Government and Pan-American Airways, as announced this morning. Auckland has special cause for gratification at the successful conclusion of the protracted negotiations, because this city will be the terminal of the transpacific route as well as the terminal of the Imperial Airways service from London via India and Australia across the Tasman Sea. Thus Auckland will stand at the junction of two great air lines girdling the whole earth. But the new move is of the first national as well as local importance. New Zealand's isolation will be ended, and her mail and passenger communications marvellously improved. Distances to and from all parts of the world will be reduced from weeks to days. If this new Pacific link be considered separately, New Zealand will be brought within a few hours' flying of her mandate in Samoa, an immense administrative gain; and within three days of the Pacific junction at Honolulu, whence her traffic can be flown westward to the Far East or eastward to link up with the vast air network of America, north and south. Finally, when the Noi'th Atlantic link is in operation, New Zealand will possess an alternative route to London capable of being covered in a week. That is the prospect definitely opened by the Government's closing on the Pan-American proposition, one that is presented freely, without cost or obligation to New Zealand. As the Prime Minister explains in his statement, the agreement made is really an extension of the licence to land at Auckland granted to the company by the previous Government, a licence of which PanAmerican Airways was not able to take advantage within the prescribed time owing to the maritime strike in the United States. Mr. Savage also explains that the delays tfyat have occurred in granting what appeared to be a simple extension were due to the Government's concern to safeguard Empire interests and its desire to consult and obtain the approval of other British Governments having interests in the Pacific. It is extremely gratifying to have his assurance that effective safeguards receiving the concurrence of the other Governments have been included in the new agreement. Under the Forbes Government the question was raised of reciprocal rights for British aeroplanes to land in American territory, should a British air service be organised across the Pacific. The right to land at Honolulu would be an indispensable condition of the realisation of any such plan. The company at that time agreed to accept the condition that, if such reciprocal right were refused by the United States Government, New Zealand should be entitled to cancel the Pan-American licence without compensation. That

such a proviso is not gratuitous is proved by the progress Imperial Airways is making with its plans to fly the North Atlantic and across Canada to Vancouver. The extension south-westward to New Zealand is contemplated, and it is well, therefore, that Mr. Savage should have taken "effective steps" to safeguard British interests.

Now that regular and swift passenger and mail services from the Pacific Coast of North America are at hand, the question of New Zealand's preparedness to receive them has to be faced. From the larger view, the Tasman link is a plain necessity without any delay that can be avoided. Without it the Pacific service reaches a dead end. It may not be flattering to New Zealand's vanity to admit this, but it is a fact. There is consequently a very powerful inducement to press to an early conclusion those negotiations with Great Britain and Australia which must be completed before the Tasman section of the Empire chain can be begun. It is for New Zealand to insist with all the force at her command that no side issues, no conflict of opinion about details, shall be allowed to interfere with the larger objective, I extension of the Imperial Airways service to these shores. With even one, much more with both, of the overseas links established, the present* undeveloped condition of the Dominion's own trunk air services j will bo shown up in even more j glaring relief, unless their extension is pushed with energy and success. Any delay in completing the direct line from Auckland to the South Island cannot bo tolerated. Under present conditions, if an overseas mail arrives in the morning, it cannot reach Palrnerston North, to be forwarded by air, until the following morning. It would be grotesque to allow this to continue when mails are arriving four days out from San Francisco. The moral is plain. With a Pacific service dropped as a gift in her lap, New Zealand must develop inland communications commensurate with this great advance.