A LADY AVIATOR

Southland Times, Issue 18078, 3 May 1919, Page 2

A LADY AVIATOR

BUSINESS VISIT TO THE DOMINION,

Mrs Maurice Hewlett, wife of the celebrated author, and a member of an aero-plane-building firm, arrived in Wellington by the Paloona on Saturday from Enbland, says the Evening Post. She has come to New Zealand in consequence of information received that the Dominion is contemplating commercial avtivities in the flying line, and as an old aviator (she was the first woman who was granted an English flying certificate) she naturally felt considerable interest. All through the war the firm has been building machines for offensive purposes. As to New Zealand, Mrs Hewlett has been making personal inquiries and studying maps since she left England, and, later, San Francisco, and her idea is that the Dominion will be best served by seaplanes. The country is, she thinks, too mountainous for land aviation, but there are immense possibilities for seaplanes owing to the numerous harbours and protected waterways, which would bo of extreme value in affording rapid means of communication by such a service. On the subject of aviation generally, Mrs Hewlett remarked that the stability problem had beet) solved, and that the only thing that a pilot had to consider was the engine. If the engine works all right, nothing else matters. “All the pilots will tell you that their fate rests with their engines,” says Mrs Hewlett. As to the future of aviation she is a firm believer in its commercial prospects, and further she is of opinion that the one-man aeroplane will be quite a popular institution, and that aeroplaning will be neither a noveylt nor a luxury, but a pastime.