AIR PORT FOR AUCKLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 676, 30 May 1929, Page 1

AIR PORT FOR AUCKLAND

Shoal Bay Suggested as Site CITY COUNCILLOR’S MOVE

IT is generally recognised that, it Auckland is to ke?p step with commercial flying as now being developed in other countries, an air port must be found in close proximity to the city. Looking to the future, Mr. G. AY. Hutchison, a new member of the City Council, has taken the first step by asking the council to report within four months on flu- possibility of acquiring a suitable area for an air port. MR. HUTCHISON has given notice | the best part of an hour’s run by to move at this evening’s meeting motor-car is really out ol the question

that: The Works Committee ot the council be requested to investigate and report not later than September -6, 1929, what areas are available in close proximity to the commercial centre of the city that would be suitable for the purpose of a commercial air port, and if the areas reported upon are privately owned or owned by some authority other than the City Council, the report to include an estimate oi the approximate cost to acquire the said areas, and an estimate of the approximate cost of equipping any of the said areas for the purpose named and that the Works Committee be requested to report further whether the establishment of a commercial air port is recognised in other countries as the duty of the municipal corporation, the Harbour Board, or the Government. Mr. Hutchison said this morning that he had not been approached by any particular body o£ persons, but he himself felt that it was high time a start was made in the direction he proposes. MANGERE TOO DISTANT As an economic proposition the Auckland Aero Club’s airdrome at Ihumatao is generally admitted to he unsatisfactory for general commercial purposes. The club itself has not thought to make an air-port out of its locality, but is building up what may he termed a good private flying insti tution. . , , . , Ihumatao being situated about -i i miles from the centre of the city and

as a commercial flying terminus. In the first place the cost of transportation to and from the drome of freight, mails and even passengers must add greatly to the expense of air transit. Then again the hour virtually added to an air journey defeats all the purpose of fast travel, particularly in regard to short trips between Auckland and other towns. The establishment of well-placed air ports throughout the country will hasten the development of commercial flying, but ’dromes located far from the centre of population they are designed to serve must only result in stagnation. POSSIBILITY OF SHOAL BAY Several possible airport sites arc “in the air.” and a suggestion nas been made that Shoal Bay, the extensive area between Bayswater and the Northcote points, might prove a practicable solution of a formidable difficulty. At low tide the hay diseases acres of unsightly mud, and engineers have expressed the opinion that reclamation need not be unduly expensive. A Shoal Bay airdrome might he made to serve a dual purpose. With its sea frontage such a reclamation, it is suggested, could be j utilised as a port, both for land planes and for flying-boats. The latter are deemed by air experts of the Dominion to he destined to play no small 1 1 part in the commercial airways ot | New Zealand.