THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1948 ENTERPRISE DENIED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26775, 19 May 1948, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1948 ENTERPRISE DENIED

Otago is represented in the Cabinet of the Labour Government by one Minister, the Minister whose portfolios include that of Civil Aviation, yet no province is so poorly served by air services as is Otago, It has been stated before in these columns that while a rich and productive section of the province lies in semiisolation behind a range of mountains the full potentialities of Otago as an economic unit and as a source of air. traffic must remain unexploited, yet while air services are improved in other parts of the country (even the little towns of Kaitaia and Kaikohe in the far north now have their daily plane) the claims of Otago are consistently neglected, ,and all efforts by private enterprise to meet the demand that exists are stultified by bureaucratic indifference. In our news columns to-day there appears a report of the endeavours of an enterprising private company to inaugurate an air taxi service to serve the needs of Central Otago, making the best of available facilities in order that the wishes of the people should be met. The record of official procrastination and obduracy is but a continuation of the story that emerged when one of the principals of the same firm, a man of outstanding attainments in the field of aviation, attempted to obtain. permission to inaugurate a charter air freight service that would have enabled Otago products to be transported. swiftly and cheaply to northern markets. It must be assumed from official statements that have been made that the Government’s monopolistic instrument, the National Airways Corporation, will at some unspecified time in the future make a move to repair the neglect of the aviation needs of this province, but even when these services are established tfyere will still be ample scope for private enterprise to operate feeder and supplementary services between centres that the ponderous bureaucratic machine could not serve at a profit. The experienced airmen who are now attempting to make a living in air transportation are possessed of an enthusiasm and an eagerness to promote the cause of civil aviation that this country cannot afford to lose. That they should be obstructed at every turn by a lethargic and churlish administration is a public scandal, and it would be thought that at the present time, when the strictures contained in a recent report are still fresh in the public mind, the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation and his department would be particularly sensitive to the dissemination of any further information of the manner in which the cause they were appointed to serve is being stifled by a blind and unimaginative adherence to socialistic policy.