TEAL Flying Boat - Mosgiel Woollen MIlls ad, 1939

 

 Mosgiel Woolen Mills advertisement,  New Zealand Railways magazine, July 1 1939

While not a travel poster, the above magazine ad for Mosgiel knitwear seeks to make the connection between the state of the art TEAL flying boat of 1939 and the stylish woollen knitwear.

The intellectual property lawyer within Kuaka wonders if Mosgiel properly arranged licensing of the TEAL flying boat image and HMV's (His Master's Voice") intellectual property - the close reference to "His Master's Knitwear". Methinks, probably not. Just a little borrowing. Today there'd be a posse of lawyers swarming all over this ad cranking up the billable hours. 

Much pleasanter to gaze reflectively out over the harbour thinking of the TEAL flying boat making a landing in Evan's Bay, Wellington... like this view:

TEAL flying boat Aotearoa landing in Wellington Harbour bringing Brtiish and Australian representatives to the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, 19 January 1940.

Union Airways Travel Poster - Main Trunk New Zealand - mid 1930s

 

Union Airways travel poster, circa mid 1930s

Union Airways, a subsidiary of the Union Steamship Company, commenced operation on the Main Trunk Route - which left Auckland out off the main trunk! Non-Aucklanders will be appreciative of this, no doubt. Just desserts and all that. Apparently, it was considered that the express rail service on the North Island Main Trunk line meant that air transport could not compete effectively with rail. How wrong they were in the long run. 

Union Steamship, the Southern Octopus as it has been called, extended its tentacles out to regional routes as well but within a relatively few years it was clear that a shipping line had no comparative advantage in operating an air service.

De Havilland airliner Karoro (gull) being loaded at Palmerston North airport, circa 4 November 1936.

  

De Havilland DH86 Express biplane, Kotuku, circa 1939, possibly at Rongotai, Wellington (according to Turnbull library, but I'm not convinced!)

Creasture Comforts...

Interior of an aircraft possibly a De Havilland Express in the 1930s.