Ray Parer

Famous Aviator Now in Merchant Navy

IN New Guinea, “aviation” and the name "Parer” are almost synonymous— therefore, it will come as a surprise to many to learn that Ray Parer, one of Australia’s gamest and best known airmen, now is serving in the Merchant Navy.

A short time ago, he came south from the Morobe Goldfields (where he has been flying for nearly 15 years), to enlist in one of the fighting services—preferably the Air Force. But the RAAF wallahs shook their heads and sadly muttered something about “too old at 47 . . .”—this to an “old-hand” pilot who can put any ship, in any sort of weather, down on a pocket-handkerchief in New Guinea, where flying doesn’t come any “tougher”.

The AIF recruiting men were equally difficult. So Parer turned to the Merchant Navy Service. There they ask only that a man be willing and courageous enough to sail the seas—l 7 or 70, age does not matter.

Ray Parer has had a remarkable career. He held a commission in the Royal Flying Corps and in the Australian Flying Corps, gaining the AFC. With Lt.

Mclntosh in 1920, he made an epic flight from England to Australia in an aero plane that literally was held together with string. Late in the 1920’5, he went to New Guinea and was one of the pioneers in the Goldfields aerial freight ing business. In 1934, he completed in the Melbourne Centenary Air Race, with Geoffrey Hems worth.

Since then, he has divided his time between his New Guinea flying and mining interests.

You can’t keep a good man down and, knowing Ray Parer’s indomitable spirit, there are many who believe that sooner nr later he will find a way to serve in the air again.

Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Warburton and family arrived in Australia recently from Fiii. Mr. Warburton has been in the Colony for 12 years, latterly being man ager at Ba for Burns Philp (SS) Co. Ltd.

He has been transferred to Sydney, and Mr, Albert Waddingham, of Nadi,- has been appointed to fill the vacancy at Ba.