Speaking at a farewell function the other day the new Hi Commissioner, Sir Joseph Cook, emphasized the determination of the Government to push ahead with airship and aeroplane communications. It did not matter, he said, what the cost. Australia to-day was nearer the back door of America than the front door of Great Britain, from which part of the Empire we were six weeks away. Communications by air were of the first importance, and he re-echoed the views not only expressed by Mr. Hughes at the recent Imperial conference, but also By Lord Northcliffe when he was in Australia a few weeks ago. While Parliament. has reduced the air vote of the Military and Naval Departments by £100,000, ministers explained that this money would in no way affect the rapid development of civil aviation, which at present comes under the Defence Department. Within a week the first of the aeroplane mail services between Perth and the extreme northwest of Australia, crossing the Great Desert Basin, will have commenced. while tenders—for aeroplane mail services between Adelaide and Sydney, thus cutting out Melbourne. and between Sydney and_Brisbane, are even now being considered. Further north and south air services are being promulgated for the) purpose of linking up the great interior, and the western portions of Queensland between Charleville almost due west of Brisbane, and Cloncurry west of Townsville: and no gre: distance from the "Northern Terri tory border.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.