A meeting called at Christchurch last week to discuss the matter resulted in the adoption of a proposal to form a company to carry out the object in question, and a strong board of directors was elected.
Canterbury cannot exactly be said to be taking the lead in this matter of the practical encouragement of the art of flying among New Zealanders, since there already exists in Auckland an aviation school which is said to be doing good work, its practical value being, through the recommendation of the Government, recognised by the Royal Flying Corps.
The movement to establish a second private school of aviation in the dominion naturally brings into prominence the question of what the Government is doing in the matter of training men for air service in a war in which the skilled aviator has proved himself indispensable.
The answer is of course that it is doing nothing.
It is apparently content to leave it to private enterprise to undertake the task.
This seems to us a shortsighted policy on its part.
The Government might well have found reasons sufficiently strong to justify it in taking the initiative, especially at such a time as this, in a matter which comes distinctly enough within the province of the Defence Department, and which it will have to take up sooner or later.
The subject was discussed in an interesting manner last session by the Legislative Council in connection with a motion by Mr Wigram in the form of a suggestion that the Government should establish a school or schools of flying in preparation for the formation of an aviation corps for purposes of national defence.
Out of a fund of information which he has collected on the subject, Mr Wigram was able to give the Council interesting particulars as to what has been done under Federal and State supervision in Australia in promoting instruction in flying, and in furnishing trained pilots for service in the war.
In holding out no hope of the Government taking any action in the matter just now the Leader of the Council urged that it had its hands sufficiently full, and that for the purposes of the present war, either for attack or defence, the establishment of such a school was not likely to be of immediate advantage.
This argument can hardly be regarded as entirely convincing.
If the Royal Flying Corps deems it worth while to offer special facilities, with a view to qualification for a commission, to men securing pilots’ certificates in private aviation schools in this dominion, there would seem to be no doubt that this country can serviceably add to its war activities by turning out men who have mastered the difficulties of aerial navigation.
If that mastery were only attainable through a very prolonged period of training it might not perhaps be apparent that local effort could do much to supply recruits for the air fleet of Britain at the time when their services should be most valuable.
But it is said that the training necessary for proficiency in flying can be acquired by the average pupil in about six weeks, and the end of the war is so far not in sight.
The promoters of the Canterbury scheme evidently intend to make expedition their watchword, and if the Government is still unwilling or unable to provide and conduct aviation training camps — as seems to be the case — then such an enterprise as Mr Wigram has promoted certainly merits public sympathy . . . — ODT, 2.9.1916.
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