Auckland-Invercargill In One Day

Southland Times, Issue 23336, 21 October 1937, Page 4

Auckland-Invercargill In One Day

The new summe? time-table which is announced this morning by Union Airways offers distinct benefits for those travelling or sending air mail or freight to the South. Under the present arrangement it is possible for passengers, mail and freight from Dunedin to reach Auckland on the day of departure, but as the south-bound air services over the two islands do not connect, there have not been the same facilities for transport in a single day from Auckland to Dunedin. The revised time-table which, subject to the approval of the Minister of Transport, will come into operation on October 30, will remedy this fault. . It provides for two trips daily between Wellington and Auckland; and the time of departure of the South Island plane from Palmerston North has been advanced from 8.30 a.m. till 10.30 a.m. so that the first plane from Auckland (leaving at 8.15 a.m.) can connect with it. This means that passengers, mail and freight from Auckland can be transported not only to Dunedin, but to Invercargill, in a single day, for although the south-bound plane will leave Palmerston

North two hours later it will still arrive in Dunedin in ample time to connect with the express train for Invercargill. On the northern trip there will still be a night’s delay between Invercargill and Dunedin.

It is worth noting that northbound passengers from Dunedin will now have the choice of two connections for Auckland at Palmerston North. The Dunedin plane is to arrive there at 12.45 p.m. and planes for Auckland will be leaving at 12.55 p.m. and again at 3.50 p.m. New Plymouth is included in only one of the Auckland-Wellington trips each day; the other is to be made direct through Palmerston North. Further extensions of the main trunk service are to be made also—through East Coast Airways—to Napier and Gisborne. As Union Airways has pointed out, this is the first time that an effort has been made to provide a network of air services throughout the country; and it certainly deserves well of the whole community. But until Invercargill is connected by a daily “feeder” service with the main trunk line at Dunedin the network will not be complete. The company has shown that it has the enterprise and initiative to expand wherever business is offering: it rests with the people of Southland to prove, by force of example, that they have the business to warrant this further extension —an extension which would enable Invercargill passengers and mail to be carried either to or from Auckland in eight and a-half hours.