28-11-91 9-8-91 Lady Wigram The Lady Wigram Trophy race, which has been held away from Wigram for the last two years, will definitely be held at the air base again next January, the president of the Canterbury Motor Racing Club, Don Craighead, has confirmed. Mr Craighead and members of his committee met yesterday with the commanding officer of Wigram Air Base, Wing Commander Gordon Alexander, to discuss the future of the race. The shadow cast by the Budget over the Wigram base, which ironically has a $4.7m new runway, now completed prompted an inquiry about the Lady 1=11= # The Motor Rac has proposed that Holden and Maz registers, which h pressed so far th with their high co numbers, combi fields for two races at the Wigr ing on January 1 will be balanced the two classes. back at base Wigram race. The development of the new runway has kept the Lady Wigram away while the runway was being built, and yesterday's meeting was organised well before the Budget announcement, Mr Craighead said. "It was an informal meeting but the Air Force was very positive about it," he said. If the Wigram base is no longer to be used for flying activities - which is likely, strange as it may seem — the new runway might as well be used for other motor racing events besides Lady Wigram. 91 cing Club t the HQ zaa Rxi have im- is season mpetitor ne l thei handica! am meet 8 and 19 + starter • betweei Real of H MYTH has surrounded the Air Force base at Wigram posed only now because of the A for the past 68 years ex- Defence Force's plan to close Wigram as a flying base. The myth is that because of the way Sir Henry Wigram helped the Government of 1923 set up a military flying base, there are special conditions in the paperwork to prevent the land ever being sold and subdivided. No such conditions exist, either in Sir Henry's initial letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Massey, which he offered to subscribe £10,000 toward the cost, or in the subsequent legal documents that made the Crown the legal owner of the Sockburn land that was later named in Sir Henry's honour. Since the July 30 Budget and its immediate $112.5 million CUL in defence spending, the nature of Sir Henry Wigram's gift to the nation has been the subject of intense behind-the-scenes investigation, both by the Air Force and civilian lawyers. Ordered to find immediate savings in this and subsequent years, the defence chiefs have implemented a drastic re" structuring of the military's infrastructure. Wigram, the birthplace of the RNZAF, was targeted as the major sacrifice to be made by the Air Force. Defence chiefs, in spite of opposition from the Air Force itself, have ordered that all flying training must move from Wigram within three years. The move, an as-yet unknown location, is estimated be worth savings of $4.8 million a year. It will spell the end of all flying at the base and although the two ground training schools will continue for the time being. the long-term outlook for the base is bleak. "Wigram will close eventually. but there is no specific time frame for that" the Secretary of Defence, Mr Gerald Hensley says. Within davs of the announcement that Wigram would be closed as a flying base, the RNZAF embarked on an internal damage-control exercise scouring the archives in see if it could still retain Wigram under the terms of the original "gift" white shifting all flying activities elsewhere. The findings are that there was no "gift" with conditions attached. and that legally the Crown is free io do with the land as it wishes. This is despite Sir Henry Wig. ram's clear wish in 1923 that the land should be forever used for flying training purposes. His words were: "For the training of story beh ind myth enry Wig ram's Until recently it was believed that Sir Henry Wigram set conditions when he gave the land for an air base. That was not true, says Dave Wilson Sir Henry Wigram... gave ba defence of New Zealand." In 1923 "airmen" meant pilots and navigators. Today the Air Force justifies its decision by insisting that in modern idiom "airman" is a generic term, covering all air force trades, including ground skills, which will continue to be taught at Wigram. Wigram as an air base exists because of the single-mindedness of the man for whom it was named. Sir Henry wigram was aged 66 when he persuaded the Government of the day to establish an air force. But his passion for aviation and his vision of the potential of the flying machine pre-dated the First World War. Sir Henry was born in London in January 1857. He was educated ai Harrow and emigrated Chrisichurch in 1885. He was successful businessman, a Mayor of Christchurch and a member of the Legislative Council. During a se for the training of "airmen". captivated by aviation and was publiciy arguing in favour of aircraft for the defence of New Zealand as early as 1909. During the First World War he formed the Canterbury Aviation Company at Sockburn. Its purposes were to train pilots for the war, promote aviation in defence and pioneer commercial flying. Sir Henry purchased three biplanes and bought the land at Sockburn. By the end of the war the Canterbury Aviation Company had trained 182 pilots for the Royal Air Force Some of these pilois, and the 33 ex-military aircraft given by Britain to New Zealand formed the nucleus of the New Zealand Air Force. To hasten the hand of an indecisive Government, Sir Henry forced the issue. On March 9. 1923, he wrote to the Prime Minister with an offer. "If vour Government wil take the (Canterbury Aviation) Company as ascertained by valuation, and will make use of the Sockburn Aerodrome for the purposes for which it was formed, viz, the training of Airmen and mechanics for the defence of New Zealand, 1 will subscribe £10,000 as a free gift in reduction of the cost of the aerodrome to the Government." Cabinet agreed and on June 22 Sockburn, renamed Wigram in Sir Henry's honour, officially handed over. Only later was it realised that Sir Henry's personal cost in the deal - one not shared by the other company directors - amounted to £29,000. From then until now Wigram has remained the primary basic flying training base for the RNZAF. The Wigram Papers, held in the archives of the Canterbury Museum, show that Sir Henry continued to be a benefactor to the Air Force. On December 8, 1931, he wrote to the Prime Minister, George Forbes, with the offer of a gift of land to expand Wigram air base. "Some years ago I purchased an area of land comprising (more than 81 acres). For some time prior to its purchase I was aware that it would probably come on to the market for sale, and I feared that if such a sale were carried out it would probably involve a cutting up of the property into small sections and the opportunity for acquiring it in block would be lost. "I therefore purchased it with the idea of offering it as a gift to the Government as I felt sure that it would not be long before the requirements of the aerodrome would need additional space." He offered the land as free gift to the King, adding "1 trust the Government will see fit 10 accept this offer and that it will prove to be of the value which my expectations place on it." Lawyers who have scrutinised these papers say the letter places a mora! if not legal obligation upon successive governments to honour Sir Henry's intentions. particularly his wish to avoid having the land subdivided into residential units. But ai no time did Sir Henry place strict conditions on his gifts, a fact he himself confirmed in a letter to the Minister of Defence on Janu- gift "In making my recent gift of land in connection with the Wig ram Aerodrome I attached no sort of condition." But Sir Henry went on to make a special plea behalf another of his pet projects - the Canterbury Aero Club, formed in 1928, of wnich ne was its first patron. The aero club flew from leased land at Wigram and Sir Henry wrote, in his 1932 letter to the Government, to ensure that the club would not be ejected from the site. give me sincere gratification if your government would consider favourably the interests of the Canterbury Aero Club now in occupation of part of the land" The Prime Minister replied on February 10. "It gives pleasure to state that your wishes in this direction will receive ine utmost consideration," Mr Forbes wrote. He added that the aero club and the Air Force officers co-operated harmoniously "and I do not anticipate that the addition of your gift to the aerodrome will necessitate disturbing the company in any way." But the Canterbury Aero Club was eventually forced to move. when at the outbreak of the Second World War Wigram training went on to a war footing More than half a century later the aero club still regards this matter as unfinished business. If the Air Force no longer wishes to operate Wigram for the training of airmen, the aero club would be happy to reclaim its old site. The legal aspect of that issue is complex. Sir Henry clearly wanted Wigram to be used for the training of pilots and he clearly wanted the aero club to be allowed to continue flying Although the aero club is maintaining a discreet silence on the matter at present, if the RNZAH does close the base to all fiving operations within three years and make any moves to sell the land, the club is likely to ask for the site to be handed nver. It cites Sir Henry's 1923 leiter saying the aero ciub stil! trains 'airmen" in the aviator sense. and the 1932 letter in which Sir Henry specifically asked for the club's interests to be protected While the Air Force insisis there are no plans to sell or subdivide Wigram, which in the Quigley Defence Review of 1988 was conservatively valued at around $25 million. there are auready indicatine that the cho airfield flying operations will in no way be the end of the story of the firs!