New Zealand's first [air]mail flight gained a recommendation from the Postal Department to Cabinet approving an experiment to investigate the practicalities of airmail. The trial was arranged to convey mail [from Auckland] to the town of Dargaville at the northern end of the Kaipara Harbour. The flight commenced from the Man-of-war Steps opposite end of the Albert Street where a crowd of 2000 had assembled at various vantage points. George Bolt was the pilot and Leo Walsh was in charge of the experimental run, being the person who officially received the mail when it was handed over from the launch. The mail comprised 825 letters weighing 22lb and an equal weight of newspapers. On 16 December [1919] the weather was sunny and fine.
The flight started at 10.15 a.m. then went up the coast to Mangawhai where it would turn west towards Kaiwaka, staying over the Kaipara Harbour and up the Northern Wairoa to its destination at Dargaville at 11.50 a.m. The schools were closed and a great part of Dargaville's population had turned out. The route took the machine over post offices and the appearance of the seaplane was recorded: Hobsonville 10.27 a.m. Mullet Point 10.45, Leigh 10.48, Pakiri 10.55, Mangawhai 11.10, Kaiwaka 11.13, Bickerstaffe 11.20, Pahi 11.34, Hukatere 11.35, Ruawai 11.36, Raupo 11.39, Tokatoka 11.42, Te Kopuru 11.46, and Dargaville 11.50 a.m.
Greeting the aviators in Dargaville was Postmaster-General and local MP, the Hon. Joseph Gordon Coates. After the mails had been delivered aboard the launch sent out by the post office authorities, the two aerial travellers and leading inhabitants of the town were entertained at a luncheon. Responding to the toast of his health, Mr. Coates dwelt upon the possibilities of aerial mail carriage to the Auckland district and to other parts of the Dominion and praised the work done by the New Zealand Flying School in connection with the war. The floatplane's crew were also toasted and then cheered as they departed south down the Northern Wairoa River to Helensville.
- Terry Moyle, The First: The Walsh Brothers & the Aeroplane Days of Edwardian New Zealand, Auckland, 2019, p.139.
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