NEW GUINEA SERVICE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 196, 20 August 1934, Page 6

NEW GUINEA SERVICE

MR. ULM’S SUCCESS TROPICAL HEAT AND ICE SYDNEY, August 2. Through extremes of tropical heat to snow and i«e, Mr. C. T. P. Ulm’s now famous monoplane, Faith in Australia, has flown, in three days, with the first air mail from New Guinea to Australia. He arrived at Mascot at 9.30 a.m. to-day, and is now on his way to Melbourne. Four hours and a-half after leaving Brisbane, the machine grounded at Mascot half an hour ahead of schedule, and splashed its way to the hangar. ’•The flight was carried out according to schedule, and in the usual quiet and interesting manner,’’ said Mr. Llm. “The 500-mile water hop, between Port Douglas and Moresby, was probably the most delightful of all the flights; "certainly the most comfortable.” Mr. Ulm spoke with amazement of the aviation work being done in New Guinea, “Take, for instance, the town iof Wau,” he said. “Everything and I everyone in the town have been carried there by aeroplanes. I “There are motor-cars and motor works, houses, an ice cream factory, and heavy boilers for mining, and even racehorses—all carried over the mountains by air. Even the racecourse fittings have been carried in this way, besides huge dredges and billiard 1 tables. It is rather amusing to hear of the Administration’s proposal to spend £400,000 on a road to the place, when the people are quite satisfied with the air service.’’ Mr. Ulm said there would be no difficulty in running similar air services to centres of population in distant parts of Australia. The lesson of the flight, said Mr. Ulm, was that it demonstrated that there would be no difficulty in running air services between Australia and New Guinea, along the route he ■ had taken. Mr. J. R. Halligan, of the Prime Minister’s Department, said the flight was very enjoyable. Approaching Lae, they found the heat very intense, but in the climb of 13,500 feet over the mountains the cold became exceedingly severe. The mail carried from Lae was 19,188 packets, and from Port Moresby it was about the same.