Flying-Boat’s

Polynesian Cruise Postponed

THE “aerial cruise” to Noumea, Suva, Apia, and Tahiti, planned to com mence on February 23, by a large Sunderland flying-boat operated by Trans Oceanic Airways, of Sydney, has been postponed. The Co. could not get per mission to land in either Western Samoa (New Zealand) or Eastern Samoa (Amer ican); and it was not considered prac ticable to fly from Fiji to Srench Oceania in one hop.

There are numerous islands between Fiji and Tahiti with open lagoons, normally safe for a flying-boat; but places like Apia, Nukualofa, Aitutaki—all well-known air-stations situated on lagoons—might not be suitable in the north-west or hurricane season, which extends from December to March.

Vavau, in Tonga, and Pago Pago, in American Samoa, have landlocked harbours, where flying-boats should be perfectly safe at any time; but Vavau lacks shore accommodation, and Pago Pago is American, and a naval station, which means that Australian tourists would have to have dollars, and they would not be wanted on a naval station, anyway.

There is no doubt that “luxury air cruises” to Polynesia will become a regular thing, eventually; but they de mand a lot of preliminary organisation.