COMMERCIAL AIR SERVICE.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3760, 25 May 1936, Page 4

COMMERCIAL AIR SERVICE.

HARDLY a day passes without an indication of the advance in civil aviation. Commercial services are steadily expanding and, in lines of communication already established, there is an increasing traffic. Yet, strange as it may seem, Te Awarnutu looks on unconcerned and, apparently, uncomprehending. Hitherto civic activity in this locality has kept pace with, if not preceded, national development of community services. Looking back on the years there is cause for pride in the knowledge that the ink was hardly dry on the regulations which perinit ted an extension cf rural telephones before Te Awamutu had perfected local organisation to grasp new opportunities, Similarly, with rural mails. More recently ,Te Awamutu pioneered ;the constitution of Electric Power Boards, and in numerous directions there has been leadership and public support to quickly convert available services of public utility to local advantage. The indifference amounting almost to apathy, in relation to airways, is certainly surprising. Indications all point to a marked development of air travel routes; in a few short years the air-age will have found its way to New Zealand, Already there are regular services in operation and they are growing in popularity and patronage. The possibilities of an Auckland-Wellington time-table is now under discussion. But with all this development, actual and prospective, Te Awamutu has no place on the air map. Why? Is it that our community is growing indifferent because of content, or it is that leadership is awaited. Neighbouring towns have been quick to capitalise the natural advantages of airports—they stand in readiness to receive the benefit of either the trunk or the taxiair services, which are now springing into being. It is high time Te Awamutu set about some serious planning —to concentrate civic effort on a public project which bids fair to. claim a prominent place in the welfare of communities ere many years have run.