The objects of the Club are: 1. To encourage and develop the sporting side of aviation in the Colony. 2. To take control, when necessary, of the sporting side of aviation in the Colony. 3. To affiliate with the Royal Aero Club and to act as the official representative of that body in the Colony. 4. To request the Government to allow an area of water to be definitely chosen for the landing of aircraft in the vicinity of the town when necessary, and to have the site left clear and available for the machines when necessary. 5. To appoint a committee to deal with the following matters: Technical, i.e. such as assistance to arriving and departing aircraft and dissemination of information on the conditions governing flying around the Colony; also to reply to the letters sent to the Government by the Aero Club of America which have been passed on to the Aero Club to reply to and give any assistance and advice to members of the Club who at any time desired to purchase and use aircraft either for commercial purposes or sport. To this should be added the formation of a Volunteer Air Force. There was a certain number of Royal Air Force pilots in the Colony, and he thought it was quite fitting that they should approach the Government with a view to forming a Volunteer Air Force, and ask that whether, in view of the necessity for such a Force, it was not willing to provide the necessary aeroplanes and aerodromes in order that the greatest use might be made of the practical air pilots with war experience. He did not think there could be a shadow of doubt in the minds of anyone who had followed the course of the war, that this Colony, as far as its own protection went, was more or less unprotected and that the future of its protection lay more or less in the air. At present it was dependent on its water and land forces. That was more or less admitted. Therefore the Club would be doing a very practical thing in the way of Empire development if it impressed not only on this Government but on the Home Government the absolute necessity of air protection not only to meet aggression but to keep it away, which was very important. With a strong force of submarines and with air protection, he thought there was little doubt that this Colony would be protected against aggression whilst assistance was coming. To ignore the possibility of danger was to emulate the ostrich: to bury their heads in the sand and say they saw no danger. With these objects in view they were forming the Aero Club. They wanted to prove the great use that could be made of a Volunteer Air Force in an outpost of the Empire like this. (Shipping and Engineering)
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