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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0691.PDF
298. FLIGHT, MARCH 19, 1936, line Australian C ase NOT a little consternation has been caused by Aus tralia's refusal to fall in with the plans of the Home Air Ministry and Post Office for a through service of flying beats to Sydney, carrying Empire mails at a flat rate of i^d. per half ounce. There seems to be a good deal to say on both sides, and the Australian case, as put by correspondents in the daily papers, deserves careful examination. From the first Flight has realised that it is unthinkable that the old Qantas service through northern Queensland —Camooweal, Cloncurry, Longreach, Charleville, Bris bane—should be given up. It is one of the most useful air lines in the world, and now that the people of the huge grazing districts, which are served have grown accustomed to depend on the aeroplanes to keep them in touch with medical aid and all the other benefits of civil isation, it would be sheer cruelty to deprive them of that service. The plan put forward from Britain disregards that inland route, which is also the most direct way between Darwin and Brisbane, and contemplates send ing flying boats from Darwin across the Gulf of Car pentaria and down the Queensland coast to Brisbane and Sydney. The Australian Government has all along decided that it would control and subsidise the section of the Empire route south and east of Singapore, so that if the flying boat plan were adopted, Australia would have to pay a subsidy for the coast route. To expect the Commonwealth to subsidise two air services between •Darwin and Brisbane would be asking too much, and without a subsidy the old Qantas service would lan guish and die. So far as is known, the only reasons why the coast route by seaplane has been put forward are : (1) because Imperial Airways wish to adopt the K.L.M. system of sending one aircraft all the way through without change, instead of sticking to their present system of changing types at Paris, Brindisi, Alexandria, Karachi, and Singapore, and (2) in order that the flying boats may be ready to fly on from Sydney to New Zealand so soon as arrangements are made for that extension. On the face of it, these reasons are not weighty enough to justify the abandonment of the inland service across Queensland, and Australia seems not only well within her rights but also acting quite reasonably in declining to agree to that proposal. Up to Darwin there are very good reasons for using the flying boat, but between Darwin and Brisbane, and even Sydney, the weight of argument is on the side of the internal landplane service. When the time comes to extend to New Zealand another arrangement can be made. The financial side of the question is more complicated. Australia has been accustomed to making a substantial surcharge on air mail letters, and objects to the idea cf carrying Empire letters at the flat rate of i^d. per half ounce. For internal letters there is also a surcharge, and it would be rather farcical if a letter from one part of Australia to another cost more than a letter from Aus tralia to England. Cheap postage, we believe, is always the best policy in the long run, and it is to be hoped that some Rowland Hill will arise in Australia to convert the Government to that doctrine. A LA MODE: The veil of official secrecy has been partially lifted from the shapely Fairey bomber monoplane, known as the Battle. Its engine is one of the new Rolls-Royce " Merlins " ; its covering of metal ; its undercarriage semi-retractable ; and its performance, if known, a State secret. R.A.F. official Photograph. Crown Copyright)
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