MAKING OF AIR-PORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 615, 18 March 1929, Page 8

MAKING OF AIR-PORTS

LOCAL AUTHORITIES DENY RESPONSIBILITY DUTY OF GOVERNMENT ("From Our Resident Reporter) Y\ EI.LINGTON, Sunday Official opinion within the Municipal Association does not endorse the opinion expressed by the Minister of Defence, Hon. T. M. Wilford, that the task of developing air-ports within the Dominion is one for the municipalities Further, it is pointed out, it is extremely doubtful whether, in the present state of the law, the municipal bodies have power to enter upon am such expenditure.

“Mr. Wilford may be right when be declares that the country should hav* 50 air-ports as soon as possible.” said an officer of the association to-dav •’But if they are needed for defence more than for commerce, then it j s obviously a matter for the Government to handle. And, with the best will in the world, I cannot see that, at the moment, flying in this country has any aim between defence and for pleasure. “If it is true that the municipalities should develop flyinggrounds it seems to me just as logical that they should develop golf courses. ‘“The question of air-ports has not come before the association, but at the conference recently there was a remit proposed by one local body that step? should be taken to obtain amendment of the Act to enable municipal bodies to subsidise flying clubs. This remit was rejected because it was considered to be too dangerous a matter to tak. up. Flying is new to this country, but it can scarcely be said that it is the duty of the local authorities to develop it. It is only recently that they have been given power to subsidise sickbenefit schemes for the benefit of their staffs, a matter much nearer them than the question of air-ports.”