NEW AIR SERVICE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19943, 30 October 1934, Page 6

NEW AIR SERVICE

WELLINGTON TO HOKITIKA STRONG BACKING By Telegraph press Association CHRISTCHURCH, October 29. An air service joining Wellington, Blenheim, Nelson and Hokitika is planned by Cook Strait Airways, a new company of which registration will be gazetted within a few days. The three main shareholders are the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Ltd., Newman Bros. Ltd. and the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Co., Ltd. The capital of the company will be £50,000. The provisional directorate includes Dr J. P. Jamieson, president of the Nelson Aero Club, Messrs H. C. Cock, J. Newman, W. Rogers and E. H. Thomson. The present intention is that the company’s aeroplanes will leave Wellington in the morning and cross to Blenheim, Nelson and Hokitika, which will be reached about noon. There service will connect with the South Westland service to be operated by a company in which Mr J. C. Mercer is interested. In the afternoon the machine will return by the same route, arriving about 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening. The schedule is, however, only tentative, as the company has at present no idea what types of aeroplanes it will use except that, because of the water crossing, they will have to be of more than one engine. A technical adviser, who will be appointed soon, will go to England early next year to inquire into the operation of internal air lines in Great Britain and investigate new types of machines. The choice of aeroplanes will depend in part on the landing grounds available. At present the Blenheim aerodrome is good, but the Nelson aerodrome needs enlarging before it can be used by moderately large machines.

The transport interests backing the new company have a precedent in such companies as the Railways Air Services in Great Britain, which was formed by four great railway companies and Imperial Airways to connect the main cities in the British Isles. They consider that by entering commercial aviation they are safeguarding their own interests in transport in the districts to be served, while the present organisation will ensure effective co-ordin-ation.