SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 26

SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER.

DANGER WAS RECOGNISED. WHANGAREI, January 11.

At the unveiling of the jubilee commemoration tablet in the Whangarei Council Chambers to-day, and again in the evening at the reunion of the Empire Ex-service Association, Mr J. G. Coates (Prime Minister) made reference to the transtasman attempt of Lieutenant Moncrieff and Captain Hood. The danger, he said, had been well recognised by those wishing to carry out the ambitious flight, and he hoped and prayed that all would yet be well. A few weeks ago he had discussed with both comrades their plans, and he had said then that he thought they were ill-prepared aviators. He regretted that the very confident rumours that had been published had proved unwarranted. The Minister oL Defence had full power to deal with the situation, and ’planes had been called from Christchurch, but had been delayed at Blenheim by bad weather. Maritime experts had worked out approximately the area where the ’plane was likely to be, and tugs were proceeding there at full speed, and would zig-zag back towards the coast. During his stay here Mr Coates lad received numerous inquiries from Austra* lia regarding the missing men.

WARSHIP TO SEARCH.

DUNEDIN TO LEAVE AUCKLAND TO-DAY. WELLINGTON, January 11. The Minister of Defence (Mr F. J. Rolleston) has been in touch with Commodore Swabey, who has replied that it will be possible for H.M.S. Dunedin to leave Auckland at 10 a.m. to-morrow, and steaming, at. 24 knots, to be at the point from which the last signal from the aviators is considered to have come, in 24 hours—that is, by 10 a.m. on Friday. Instructions have been issued for the ship to proceed accordingly.

’PLANE SEEN FROM PORIRUA.

WANGANUI SOLICITOR’S STATE-

MENT.

WANAGNUI, January 11. A Wanganui solicitor,. a passenger on the evening express from Wellington to Marton on Tuesday evening, states that 20 or 30 persons on the train distinctly saw a ’plane flying inland from Porirua. When he heard others talking about it he looked out and discerned a speck in the distance, rapidly disappearing. This was about 8 o’clock.

THE AIRMEN’S PROGRAMME.

PREARRANGED PLANS.

SYDNEY, January 11. Captain Kight, in conjunction with Lieutenant Walley, after carefully comparing and working out the pre-arranged plans of the flight with the times and places where the ’plane was reported to have been observed in New Zealand, concludes that the petrol ran out and the ’plane landed in the rough country of the Tararua or Rimutaka Ranges. The flyers having been 41 hours without sleep —2l of which they had been flying—would be absolutely worn out, and would go straight to sleep, which ’ would probably last 24 hours. This, he thinks, may account for the want of any further information as to their whereabouts. WELLINGTON, January 11. Captain Kight this evening cabled to the Secretary of the Telegraph Office from Sydney : “ Please inform all concerned that the plans were to land on Foxton Beach in case of a night landing. Whilst waiting for confirmation of the times. that the Kaiwarra and the Arahura sighted the aeroplane, my present opinion is that the men landed in the vicinity of the Rimutakas, and as they had had no sleep for 41 hours—2l of which were spent in the air—sleep would be their first thought.”

THE DISTANCE COVERED.

CAPTAIN KIGHT’S ACCOUNT.

. _ SYDNEY, January 11. Captain Kight accounts for the for the influence of a known anti-cyclonic disturbance, which it was expected might influence the flight and bring about a possible consequent drift, he calculates the distance flown between Richmond and New Zealand at 1630 miles, and when the machine was sighted at Stephen’s Island it had been 21 hours 40 minutes in the air.

Failing landing at Trentham,'it had been arranged that the flyers should attempt to land at Paekakariki or Foxton Beaches. Apparently they found themselves over the sea and turned landward again, seeking a landing. This would account for their subsequent reported movements.

Captain Kight states that, allowing steamer Kaiwarra’s report, that it had seen a dropping flare, by the flyers having climbed to escape the mist, then opening the engine to descend, giving the impression of the flares. Then, subsequently cruising round in a search for Trentham, the airmen found themselves again over the sea, and turned northwards towards the Rimutakas, and the petrol, then running very low,’ gave out in rough country between the Tararua and Rimutaka Ranges.

THE ARAHURA REPORT.

CAPTAIN WILDMAN’S VERSION. WELLINGTON, January 11. Captain Wildman, of the Arahura, reports that some of the stewards and passengers reported seeing an aeroplane when the vessel was rounding Jackson Head at about 11 p.m., but this is ridiculed by all deck hands. The steward who first thought he saw an aeroplane stated this morning that it was low down between the vessel and Jackson Head, and was passing quickly eastward. The captain states that this was obviously the light of a scow passing at the time, and was never reported as anything else by himself, . his officers, or any of the deck hands.

STEAMERS IN TASMAN SEA.

NO SIGN OF MONOPLANE. WANGANUI, January 11. No trace of the missing ’plane was Been by the coastal steamers Inaha, Breeze, and Kapiti, which arrived here tliis morning, or by the Arapawa, from Onehunga. *