FLYING BOAT SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23529, 18 June 1938, Page 18

FLYING BOAT SERVICE

AUSTRALIAN CONFUSION INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION <From Oub Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. June 9. The longer the inauguration of the England-Sydney flying boat service is delayed, the deeper seems the morass in which the Federal administrators have landed themselves. The Minister of Defence, Mr H. V. Thorby, who recently figured in a tiff with the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr M. J. Savage, over the trans-Tasman service, is receiving the brunt of the hot criticism. , ( . The chief reasons for that criticism are, first, that no arrangements have been made for the distribution of air mail except by train to capital cities other than Brisbane and Sydney, these two being on the route of the flying boats! and, secondly, because of the Government’s procrastination and delay. the bases on the Singapore-Sydney section of the route will not be ready when the service begins. Under the present service, the air mail ia distributed by internal flying services to all the capital cities and to towns on the routes. Many questions by members, a debate in the House of Representatives, and a subsequent interview with Mr Thorby have failed to clarify the Government’s intentions for the internal distribution of air mails by the new flying boat service, which is due to begin on July 5, Replies given by Ministers have caused extraordinary confusion and the position is obscure. What the Ministry s final policy will be remains the subject of keen speculation in the lobbies. Briefly, the questions to which members have been attempting, unsuccessfully, to obtain definite replies are:— How soon after the flying boat service begins will London air mails be distributed throughout Australia by air? Will a surcharge be imposed for internal distribution by air of London mail? If so, will this surcharge be payable in London or will it be paid by the Australian recipient of the mail. Although Mr Thorby refused to be drawn on questions of Government policy until the whole scheme had been completed, latest statements appear to indicate that, contrary to expectations, English mail distributed by air in Australia, except that dropped by the flying boats between Darwin and Sydney. may carry a surcharge, A significant comment by Mr Thorby was that the air mail agreement provided only for the carriage of mail from London to Sydney and that the distnbution of mail to other centres was a matter for arrangement by the Australian Government If a surcharge is adopted the position apparently will be that mail for Sydney or for any point between Darwin and Sydney will be carried from London at ordinary postage and that mail distributed to otner centres by air, including that carried from Darwin to Adelaide and Perth by special services, will have to pay the surcharge imposed on ordinary internal air mail. The Government has yet to decide by what means and at what cost to the public oversea air mail is to be distributed to the various States. But’ the greatest criticism of Mr Thorbv arose from a statement ne made in an interview. He said the mania for speed could be easily overdone. By the establishment of the flying-boat service, weeks were being cut off the time taken to deliver oversea mails, but now it seemed that there was a demand that seconds should be cut off the time taken to deliver the mails within Australia, and night flying had been suggested. He did not consider that night flying would be necessary, and if it were adopted it might result in the loss of life. His ambition was to have the air mails distributed by flyng, although as a safety measure, aerodromes would be equpped for night landings. The Sydney Morning Herald, in one of the bitterest editorial articles it has printed for many years, said: This statement casts the gravest doubts upon Mr Thorby’s fitness to administer either of the air-mail services, or of the Defence Department upon which those services are most improperly engrafted for administrative purposes. His contemptuous references to the mania for speed’ denotes a complete lack of sympathy with aerial transport of mails, and suggests that Mr Hiorby has inherited all the original antagonism with which his predecessor in office, Sir Archdale Parkhill. approached the subject—three and ahalf years ago—of the Empire flying boat scheme. If words mean anything, the department, in the grip of its own particular ‘ mania,* has had no time to pay any attention to distribution. His description of immediate public protest as a demand that seconds should be „ut off the time of delivery’ is not only petulant, but will arouse general mistrust. A year ago the flying boat mails were to begin on January 1 last, in December the Minister promised the opening for last April; the date named now is July 5. This is the Minister who castigates a ‘mania tor speed ’in his critics! It Is clear that he cannot administer the flairs proper to a Minister for Air, and the blame for the confusion and mismanagement which result from his trying to do so must therefore be laid at the door of the Prime Minister as well as his own.” , . The necessary bases in Australia are far from complete, and the crews of the flying boats will have to make the best use they can of poor facilities Qantas Empire Airways had flying boats available to begin the service last January, in accordance with the conditions of contract with the Commonwealth Government, but there was a delay because the necessary bases had not been established, and there were no facilities for docking the flying boats at Rose Bay, the terminal base at Sydney. These facilities are still lacking. „ ... . The slipway *t Hose Bay will not

be completed until September, at the Earliest. A contract has not yet been let for the erection of the hangar. Tha tenders will not close until next week, and a contract may not be let until the end of this month. The hangar will not be completed until the end of this year at the earliest. Meanwhile, there will be no facilities for the effective servicing of tha flying boats south of Singapore. There will be provisional mechanical staff* at Darwin and Brisbane, but at neither place will there be facilities for making permanent repairs. There will be no means of docking the boats at Rose Bay until the slipway is completed, and even then repairs will have to be made in the open until the hangar Is built. If urgent repairs are necessary, the flying boats will hay?, to be beached or taken to dockyards.