POOR SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27210, 13 October 1949, Page 6

POOR SERVICE

DOMINION’S AIRWAYS CRITICISM BY TOURIST The New Zealand air service was the poorest he had seen in the world, said Mr R. Wilson, a South African publisher, who arrived in Dunedin yesterday, when interviewed by the Daily Times last night. The pilots were doing a magnificent job under most difficult conditions and without the best of modern aircraft, he added. There was no excuse for this lack of the latest planes, he said, as types specially designed for conditions similar to those in New Zealand had been available for some time, and the service was a national organisation. On a recent flight in New Zealand his plane had encountered bad weather and had been forced to rise to 12,000 feet above sea level. The type of plane he was travelling in did not have a pressurised cabin, and had not been designed to carry passengers, above 10,000 feet. He had “passed out”— a thing he had never done on transAtlantic flights at greater heights. Since February he had travelled some 65,000 miles around the world, most of it by air, and had done much flying previous to this. The comfort- and efficiency of the railways of the country, however, considering the narrow gauge, compared favourably with those of South Africa, he said

In general, however. New Zealand was one of the most fortunate countries in the world. It was not torn by warring sections of the community. Admittedly there were hyo political parties, but they were both democratic. It was not, as in South Africa, a case of white against black and black against Indian. The women of New Zealand were praised by Mr Wilson. They were most versatile, he said. They possessed abilities seldom seen in South Africa — few South African girls could make their own clothes. The New Zealand girls were able to perform almost all domestic tasks with worth-while results.