AVIATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3414, 20 August 1919, Page 49

AVIATION.

ADAPTATION TO COMMERCIAL PURSUITS. SOME COMMENTS BY SIR JOSEPH WARD. At Wellington on the Sth Sir Joseph Ward naii boiiiutii.iig to say on avi-iuon, a subject in which lie liaa always shown a keen interest. "Necessarily," he said, "the whole question as a matter of policy will have to be considered by the Government. The report of Colonel Bettington, who came out specially to investigate aviation for New Zealand, I have not seen so far, but I am looking forward with very much interest to reading it and seeing the details of the proposals made. In my opinion, no country that wants to keep abreast of the times can afford to stand out of aviation for long. The developments have been so extraordinary, particularly during the last year of the war, and since then, that what was at one time rightly regarded as a somewhat dangerous service has progressed to an extent that is making it almost as safe as motoring or transit for human beings by sea, and it is now only a question of money as to its adoption for mail services to places in this country that are remote from daily or even bi-weekly communication. In England, for instance, it is an every-day occur* rence for newspapers, both morning and evening, published in London, to be carried by aeropla.nes, specially adapted for the service, to different parts of the United Kingdom. I was assured, upon competent authority, that tho force of wind does not stop them from going in any weather; so far as that is concerned, it is fog and heavy thick rain that are the principal deterrents. There are daily services from England to Paris and- Cologne, and to other important centres on the Continent, that aro carried out with great regularity, except under the conditions that I have referred to. The heads of great business establishments in London can cross for the purpose of spending a day or so and returning the same way. A short while before I left London, Mr Selfridge, head of the great firm of Selfridges in London, proceeded to Dublin, where there is a branch of his business, spent a day there, and returned tho next morning. The head of Harrods, Ltd., proceeded to Paris and Belgium, spent a day there, and returned next day. These are only isolated instances of the nses to which aeroplanes are being put, and it seems to me that in this country, though necessarily on a smaller scale compared with anything that has been attempted and carried out in England, the conditions are such that we cannot afford to lag behind. " There is a regular passenger servioe carried on daily in England, Scotland, and Ireland. On the steamer orossing the Atlantic before the one we came by thero were seven different people who employed aeroplanes to enable them to join the steamer, the train connection for which, they had missed. Their luggage was carried as welL They did not all travel by the same aeroplane, but I understand that there were five machines altogether. I had the_ opportunity after I left England of seeing tho British dirigible make its start on the return journey across the Atlantic It appeared over Broadway, Now York, while Lady Ward and I were returning from the Australasian Club, which has been established there for Australians and New Zealanders. This huge machino, in appearance like a silver fish, appeared over our heads. The army authorities turned on a number of searchlights.-and the heavens were lit up. The dirigible passed over two of the tallest buildings in New York 50ft clear of them. At a particular point it turned seawards, and then put on full snecd and disappeared completely from view in less than 10 minutes. The fact' that this dirigible has mzdc the journey safely both wavs is a pretty clear indication of what can be done in the air. It is. of course, costlv work. _ Voyages of this kind are costly; and it will bo a considerable time before a regular Atlantic air service for the conveyance of passengers is carried out. But that it is coming is as sure as that we are alive. So far as NewZealand is concerned the whole matter is one for consideration by the Government as a whole."