TRAVEL BY AIR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24540, 24 March 1943, Page 4

TRAVEL BY AIR

POST-WAP, EXPANSION o OPPORTUNITY FOR PILOTS One of the greatest problems likely to confront the Rehabilitation Board j after the war concerns a special kind of returned man—the former pilot and his fellow aircrew members. Even more 3 than the soldier or the sailor, the men 1 who have fought their share of the war in the air will demand special attention—not through any native intractability on their part, but through ; the individual nature of the warfare ■ they have waged and the training which preceded it. The fighter pilot flies his £IO,OOO - machine alone; the bomber crew are J only a little less lonely in their re- - sponsibility. When the last bomb has been dropped and the last sweep made, these men are going to find it difficult to re-enter civil life. Since many of them join the force at 18, it will be almost their first experience of the competition of business life. The technicians among the ground crews will be reabsorbed into industry, but the fliers who have no trade but that oi Hying will find adjustment hard. Air-minded Public The dimensions of the problem are very much greater than in 1918, but an obvious answer suggests itself in the expansion of New Zealand's commercial airlines. That the urge to expand is there was amply shown before the outbreak of war deprived most of the operators of their machines. It is not to be expected that with the homecoming of hundreds of men and women used to the amenity of air transport that urge will have less support from public opinion. In 1942 more people travelled by air in New Zealand than in any other country in the world, on a population basis. Government aid has been promised and was in fact being given before the war. Every facility was given Pan American Airways in opening and maintaining their service between the , Dominion and San Francisco, and there i was keen interest in the suggested; municipal airport at Mangere. The new j aerodromes constructed since the war began and those that have been enlarged will pay dividends in efficiency and safety when the struggle is over. Suitability of Country New Zealand's geography, which, by modern standards, isolates many communities, is another factor making for a large-scale development of internal airlines. Communications were greatly improved by the opening of the different air routes, but the war checked expansion. Yet at the end of last year passengers carried had increased in number to 40,000 on the six airlines operating, and approximately 166,000 lb. of mail were carried. A country of small distances, New Zealand has every reason to demand the travel and business facilities the airliner can provide, the more so if she is to maintain her position as a world tourist centre. With typical business acumen the Americans have already shown how they appreciate the possibilities by allotting a specific portion of their present aircraft production to transports. By June this year that allowance will be in the'region of 30 per cent, with a sub-allowance for purely civil machines. Britain continues to regard war production as more important. Fast Services A programme of expansion for New Zealand will follow the lines laid down before the war. There will be at least a daily service between Auckland and Sydney connecting with the internal airlines in both countries. Express services between the four main centres will be flown non-stop, with anything up to six daily - trips each way. Dunedin four hours away, Christchurch three, Wellington two —these are the attainable schedules by present standards. Later, when the peacetime "dreamships" on the designers' boards have become fact, those times could be improved on. Feeder services and freight lines will operate to the smaller centres, spreading a network wherever speed, comfort and convenience are required. FURNITURE TRADE AUSTRALIAN RESTRICTIONS SYDNEY, March 23 Parliament had decided to restrict furniture manufacture to essential articles on which it would impose maximum factory prices, the president of the Furniture Trade Panel, Mr. O. Schreiber, said in Sydney. The new scheme would operate from March 31. "A schedule describing the articles which can be made and their maximum prices has been adopted unanimously by the manufacturers, retailers, and the union," stated Mr. Schreiber. "The purpose of the scheme is to conserve manpower." Some of the maximum factory prices are: —4ft Gin. wardrobe or 4ft. dressing table, £9 10s; oft. sideboard, £9; kitchen cabinet, £5 10s; dining table, • £5; kitchen table, £2. There can be no increase in the price of articles now made for less than the articles mentioned. The retail prices are from 33 1-3 to 50 per cent more than the factory prices. It is intended to control the trade • by allowing labour to remain only in those factories which adhere strictly to the panel's maximum price schedule.

| TAXATION ANOMALY ! CHURCH PAPER'S PROTEST Under the title "Superannuation versus Social Security" the Outlook, the official organ of the Presbyterian 1 Church of New Zealand, protests against what it describes as "an anomaly in the taxation of superannuitants which causes a' definite injustice to many people who deserve better of their country." | "The position is." says the Out- ; look, "that the recipients of old-age ! social security benefits up to £l3 lffe , a month for man and wife are exempt : from taxation, while superannuitants ; on a small pension are compelled to pay i2s 6d in the pound Hence it is that I those who through lack of thrift, or | perhaps through no fault of their own, J have made no provision for their old j age, are better off than those who | have made sacrifices to secure it. The j injustice is the more evident since the 1 superannuitants have, by their sacrificial thrift, relieved the Government of the necessity of providing for them." TOBACCO WORKERS' AWARD An increase of Is a week in all male workers' rates, and an increase of Is a week in the rates for female workers (non-bonus workers) have been granted by the Court of Arbitration in the new Northern, Wellington and Nelson tobacco workers' award. The memorandum to the award states that the settlement of the dispute was reached before the commencement of the Economic Stabilisation Emergency Regulations and that the Court did not have to consider the regulations in making the award.