THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1948. MARINE AIR SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26792, 8 June 1948, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1948. MARINE AIR SERVICES

When the question of air communication between the South Island and Australia was broached at a conference held in the city on Friday the Minister in Charge of Civil Aviation, Mr Jones, seemed depressingly pessimistic regarding the early inauguration of such a service. He repeated the dull platitudes that have now come to be regarded as the stock replies from official circles whenever the South Island’s needs in international air services are urged—that the service might not be warranted, that Melbourne’s airfield did not conform to international specifications, and that no airport in the South Island was up to the required standard. He did not reveal, according to the report, that the agitation that has been vigorously pressed in Wellington for a share in the Australia-New Zealand services is likely to be crowned with success, and that the problem of aircraft and facilities, which Mr Jones -considered to be a serious handicap to the inauguration of services to the South Island, is to be solved in a manner that was recommended by the Daily Times a year ago. Wellington has been claiming a share of the flying boat services for a long time, and even the promise of a £2,000,000 airfield 1 at Rongotai has not reduced the vigour with which representations have been made in official quarters by those who still reserve their opinions on the future of Rongotai as a" potential international airport. Now, according to a message from Auckland which was published in our news columns .yesterday, plans are being made for the probable diversion of one New Zealand-bound flight in four to Evans Bay, Wellington, as soon as the new Solent flying boats are delivered.

The prospect of an early realisation of their hopes must be extremely gratifying to those Wellington interests which Have fought so long against prejudice in high places, a prejudice against marine aircraft which has been sedulously fostered by pressure groups concerned with.furthering the interests of American aircraft manufacturers. But the announcement must be particularly galling to those persons and* organisations in Dunedin which have urged so strongly that a similar service could be commenced between Melbourne and Dunedin, and other southern ports. The shipping position between Australia and New Zealand, and especially between Australia and southern ports, is not likely to improve for some considerable time, and a golden opportunity exists for an air minded Government—a Government which is a major airline operator—to establish public confidence in safe, comfortable trans-ocean air travel. When the Solents are delivered aircraft will be .available in adequate numbers to give the service that would be required, and the facilities necessary for servicing them at both Australian and New Zealand ports would cost no more than a few thousand pounds, a negligible amount compared with what will ultimately have to be spent on landing fields and elaborate navigational aids. In spite of what Mr Jones has said a substantial body of opinion in both Melbourne and Dunedin is convinced that a marine air service between the two _ ports is both practicable and warranted, and that the time has come to have the matter thoroughly investigated. As Mr W. R. Clarke, chairman of the Otago Harbour Board, states in an interview which appears elsewhere in this issue, the Upper Harbour satisfies most of the requirements of a modern marine airport, and it is matter of some surprise that a second service to the North Island should be planned before the use of this harbour: as a terminal has been considered.