NEW ZEALAND AIR SERVICE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 223, 19 April 1933, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND AIR SERVICE

Auckland to Timaru ACCOMPLISHMENT BEFORE END OF YEAR i _____ Kingsford Smith's Interest If negotiations at present in train I come to fruition, regular air mail and J passenger services between Auckland and j Timaru should be an accomplished fact | before the end of the year. This infori mation was gathered by a reporter from ! the Timaru Herald in conversation with j Mr. H. M. Mackay, managing director of j New Zealand Airways, Limited, who lunched in Timaru on Thursday on his way to Dunedin after his trip across the Tasman Sea in the Southern Cross with Air-Commodore Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. While in Australia Mr. Mackay made extensive inquiries regarding air services there and, as a result, brought back with him a good deal of interesting information. At present he is negoti- • ating to purchase in Australia two | machines of the Avro 10 type, which will ibe similar to the Southern Cross. They J are fitted with Armstrong-Siddeley-Lynx I engines, and will have a greater cruising f speed than the "old bus." They will be j able to accommodate about 12 passengers j each. At present the idea is to have | two machines in service, and one in rej serve, so that a regular service will be j maintained. j Tentatively, Auckland and Timaru are | to be the termini of the proposed ser- ! vice, with landing points at New Ply- | mouth, Wellington and Christchurch. I There is a possibility that Christchurch I might be made the southern terminus, j but Mr. Mackay assured the reporter that ! he would do his utmost to extend the ' flights to Timaru. "Sir Charles was so pleased with the ! progress of aviation in New Zealand," j said Mr. Mackay in answer to a ques- ; tion, "that he has promised to father j any scheme of the kind we like to put j up. He promised further that, when ar- { rangements for our services are comi plete, he and Captain P. G. Taylor, his j co-pilot on the Tasman flight, will come | over and inaugurate them." j Evidence that the proposal is rapidly j taking concrete form is to be had in j the fact that Mr. Mackay returned from I Australia a good deal sooner than he ' originally intended, in order to bring to ! a head a deal for two planes which are now available in Australia.