NEWLY-ARRIVED BABY’S JOURNEY BY PLANE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 8

NEWLY-ARRIVED BABY’S JOURNEY BY PLANE

TRAVELLED IN A MAIL BAG FLYING WHEN TWO HOURS OLD GREAT BARRIER TO AUCKLAND [ Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Jan. 3. It was Baby Connell’s big day. Born at the Great Barrier at 5 o’clock on Saturday morning, he wasted no time in going places. Realising with a sudden start that he was a premature baby and required careful attention, he gave the hasty stork a reproving look, climbed aboard an aeroplane and travelled the 60-odd miles from the Great Barrier to Auckland in record time. At 8.30 o’clock he was sleeping peacefully in his temperature-con-trolled cot in the Karitane Hospital, McLean Road, Mount Albert. “Phew!” he muttered. “What a day!” But, he reflected, with a glow of pride, he must be about the youngest aeroplane passenger in the world. Only two hours and a-half old when he climbed aboard, he considered he was running close to the record. Oi course, there were babies from around Marlborough and Nelson way who travelled by ’plane, too, but they would have to move some to beat a really determined Aucklander’s rerecord! Just Caught the Old Year Slight, red and wrinkled, he was too tired to take much notice of anything this morning. There was some reason for his apparent breathlessness. When a fellow has just caught the end of 1938 by a narrow margin, he has every reason to sleep it off. Before retiring into a luxurious slumber, no doubt he made his New Year resolution—to keep on living for another 100 years. That’s the way he looked, anyway. About 15In. in height, and turning the scales at 2ilb. on Saturday morning, he surprised his Clevedon parents, who have been holidaying at the island, by arriving on New Year’s Eve. This unexpected ultra-extreme punctuality meant that there was a hurried call for the doctor from Auckland. On receipt of notice of an urgent maternity case at the Barrier, Dr. R. Nicks took off from Mangere shortly after 3.30 on Saturday morning in an aeroplane piloted by Squadron-Leader D. M. Allan and, after a swift run, reached the island something over half an hour later. Following on the stork’s safe delivery of Master Connell, whose mother remained behind and was doing well, the baby was packed in cotton wool, enclosed comfortably in a hessian mail bag and swept southward to Auckland and a safe landing.