Charting Of Fiji Water
p. 88 · Read in the full issue
Proposed Aerial
WITH the co-operation of tt Royal Australian Air Fon and the New Zealand Nay Fiji waters may soon be accurate] charted.
If proposals now being discusse are agreed to, RAAF Mosquito ai] craft will make an aerial survey ( Fiji reef waters this May or Jim The photographs will be taken s 300 mph and will cover a belt 1 miles wide. This will allow tl work to be completed in 12 to \ hours’ flying time.
With such photographs, the N Navy survey ship Lachlan can steal ahead at normal speed while hi instruments record the contours i the ocean bed beneath her. Witl out the aerial maps she would hai to steam at no more than foi knots, preceded by a pinnance i find the position of coral heads ar reefs.
The project—if carried out —w be part of the Colony’s Developmei Programme.
In 1951, as part of the same pr< gramme, the aerial surveying of tl Colony was undertaken by a Unit* Kingdom firm. Although it was record dry season for Fiji, the woi was not finished as scheduled, bi cause even on fine days much < the land was obscured by cloud.