Story: Aviation

In 1914 the British Imperial Air Fleet committee presented a Blériot monoplane to the New Zealand government, as part of a plan to encourage aviation in the countries of the British empire. The previous year Joseph Hammond had been appointed official government pilot, and in January 1914 he made a number of flights over Auckland in the Blériot; this photograph shows the plane during one of these flights. Hammond’s employment was terminated when on his last flight he took as a passenger a member of the touring Royal Pantomime Company, Miss Esme McLalland, instead of one of the assembled officials and media representatives.