CHARGES TO AERO CLUB

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 11

CHARGES TO AERO CLUB

MAYOR ANSWERS PROTEST IN WELLINGTON COUNCIL’S GENEROSITY From. Our Resident Reporter WELLINGTON, Today. The recent decision of the Wellington City Council to increase the rent charges to the Wellington Aero Club by £3OO a year for each airplane after the first two led to a protest being entered by the aero club secretary, Air. N. McArthur. On Saturday, the Mayor of Wellington, Mr. G. A. Troup, replied in detail to the protest, claiming that the club has been very generously treated by the council. The City Council, says Mr. Troup, has set aside a large area of land, about 60 acres, the value of which would be anything from £3,000 to £3,500 an acre, as an airport, say a total value of £75,000. Interest on the value of this land, putting it at £62,500, the mean between the values of 60 acre« at £3,000 and at £3,500 an acre, at 5 per cent., would be £3,125. Buildings have been erected, a caretaker has been employed, and the annual working expenses of the council in maintaining the area will be an additional £SOO. so that the rent of this property would be, say, £3,600. The council has practically given over this property to the Aero Club, which is being asked to pay £SOO per annum for housing and flying four machines. TWO MACHINES

At the present time the club has two machines, for which it pays £3OO to the council. Two more machines are to be brought into use shortly and for these the council has agreed to reduce the charges to £IOO for each machine. The council provides housing accommodation and workshop accommodation, and no additional charge is made for flying from or alighting on the area. “It will be realised, then,’* said Mr. Troup, “that the council’s contribution toward flying is a very substantial one. The obligation of teaching men to fly is not one for the City Council, it is one for the Government. It might just as reasonably be requested that the municipalities should undertake the expense of the defence of the country. “It must also be borne in mind that this area would have been very useful for general sports purposes, and while the council has set it apart for aviation purposes it means that additional grounds will in future have to be found elsewhere. I consider that the council has dealt most generously with the Aero Club and has done more to help aviation than any other municipality in New Zealand. “If the club is in financial difficulties the proper course is to obtain redress from the Government. But I would like to have a statement from the club as to its assets. At the present time the public is not in possession of the facts from which to know what the club cai} afford and what it cannot afford to nav.”