Last night I was complimenting the hon. the Minister on extending our weather research services. I hope he will be able to inform the House to-day what progress he has made, especially with the available American contribution. I feel that if there is a Krushchev controlling the North Pole observations, why should not a Ben Schoeman be the power in the south? I think this is a great opportunity for the Minister which he should not neglect. I read here in Weather Predictions by Lester—

During World War II all military operations were timed on the basis of weather forecasts, and so are our air services. In the industrial and agricultural development to-day much depends on weather forecasts on land and sea. Storms and flood, rain and dry periods are all dominant factors as regards the agricultural development of this country. It applies also very much to the Minister’s own services, rail services, bus services and industrial development like boring for oil at sea, and even for other developments such as the Minister is carrying out at Mossel Bay. They all depend on weather forecasts. I think even the power of our developing nation depends very much on our knowledge of future weather conditions. I compliment the Minister on what progress has been made, but we have not yet heard of the prospect of a Schoeman satellite circling round the South Pole, or anything of that nature, or the prospect of these little gadgets being put on ice floes which will automatically send out weather forecasts. We in South Africa are at the end of a continent. We are not favourably placed, like Germany, where there are big land areas on which to base weather forecasts. We have the sea around us on three sides. We hope the Minister will tell us of further developments in regard to information coming from the sea to our south on which so much of our planning depends.

I wish also to compliment the Minister on his luxury bus tourist services from Cape Town to Durban. I regret, however, that the most interesting section of our coastal road, which was included in the original plan, is not likely to be available for this service for many years unless it receives the special attention of the Minister. I refer to the section from the Alexandria district to East London along the coast. This section was planned to be on our coastal route service and it was regarded to be one of the most spectacular routes, but it was confronted by a heavy bridge-building programme. Now most of these bridges have been completed, but this important road is very low down in the programme of road-building, in spite of the enormous amount of money spent in building the bridges. The East London Divisional Council has completed the bridges beyond the Keiskama River and have bituminised the road, and the Alexandria Divisional Council have tarred it from Nanaga up to Alexandria, and the Government has completed a number of bridges over the Fish River, the Bushman’s River and many other rivers. It seems to me that this capital will lie idle if the road development is not hastened. Sir, this road passes through the most attractive country. In the Alexandria district it passes over Karel Landman’s farm, the great Voortrekker, the man who in his day supplied all the surrounding area with fruit from his garden. It also passes closely to Nonquase’s grave, who induced the Natives to kill their cattle, and so reduce the power of the Xhosa people. It is a most historical area, clothed with forests and bush. Some of our finest farms are there. There the Minister could see what progressive farmers have done. He can also come into contact with the local attractive forests and backwoods and enjoy the wonderful climate. But the whole area can only be made accessible by efficient road services. This also, I think the Minister of Defence will agree, is a potential military road. I am astounded at the little interest that has been placed in it by the Provincial authorities. It is an area where game abounds, bush buck, duiker and even Oribi, and it is country which would be attractive to tourists. It is in proximity to the sea and the roar of the Indian Ocean would be in the ears of travellers right along the route. When we think of tourism, it is an area which we cannot afford to neglect. I appeal to the Minister to give special attention to this road and to see whether it is possible for it to be raised in the list of important roads needing attention. It is now only a special road, but it should be graded more highly and I have no doubt that when this road is developed the Minister should be the first to travel along it and he will be very proud of having had that experience.

I should like to direct attention to “J” in Vote 19, the contributions and grants made, more particularly to the Road Safety Council. I do not want the amount reduced, but I should like to bring a matter to the notice of the Minister with the request that he should transmit it to the Road Safety Council with a favourable recommendation.

The safety on our roads is of interest to all of us, and probably the speed of the traffic has much to do with it. Now the old method of limiting speed has always been: Catch the man, bring him to court, fine him and let him go. We have not had much success with that. I have just one objection to that, namely that it takes no notice of modern techniques in regard to the assessment of speed, and that it does not adapt it to our needs. Recently—perhaps it is not so recently—a new apparatus was put on the market. I do not know what it is called in Afrikaans. We still have to find that out, but for lack of a better name I will call it an electro-technical speedometer, known in English as the gasometer. The C.S.I.R. people assure me that if this apparatus is kept in proper order it works faultlessly. It simply does not make a mistake and can determine within 27 feet whether a man has travelled at 40 miles per hour or 100 miles per hour. According to the old method, we trap such a person, bring him to court and fine him and let him go. But that is closing the stabledoor after the horse is stolen. I want to suggest something else for consideration by the Road Safety Council. When they use such a faultless apparatus and catch somebody contravening the speed limit, they should make him draw up at the side of the road and deflate one or two or all four of his tyres. They should not leave him there to the mercy of the sun and the wind. They should give him a pump and say: Now pump up your wheels and hand the pump in to the nearest police station, and if he does not take it back they can prosecute him for theft of the pump because they have his address. Sir, it sounds ridiculous but when it was first suggested 20 years ago that we should apply weekend arrest to people who drive motor vehicles whilst under the influence of liquor, the whole world laughed about it. I know it came over the radio from some discussion here in Cape Town and everybody laughed about it and thought it was the greatest joke. But to-day we have week-end arrest and a person may be sentenced to spending 1,000 hours in prison spread over the week-ends of a year. That has a very wholesome effect on this type of crime. Therefore, if we now adopt a similar measure— I know there are legal implications which we can remedy later. I imagine that the traffic police may perhaps not be able to handle this authority, but we can teach them to do so like trained policemen. We can also evolve other legal means by which such a person, if he feels aggrieved, can initiate a case without paying the legal costs. He can take the case to the Attorney-General and we can always amend the law in such a way that he has redress when the tyres of his vehicle have been deflated unjustifiably. I have been told—I do not know whether it is true—that there are states in the United States of America which have this type of legislation. The police just tell such a person to pull out of the road and deflate a couple of his tyres, depending on what speed he travelled at, and then make him pump. It has this wholesome effect, that it hits the man who has been speeding in his most tender spot. If he is in a hurry he will then not exceed the speed limit because he knows that then particularly he will be late. Therefore while he is pumping he will miss his appointment. What is more, it has a psychological effect. All the passers-by who see him pumping will know what has happened. It will have a very beneficial psychological effect on the other road-users. I ask the Minister to transmit this suggestion to the Road Safety Council for investigation and consideration.

Then just one final remark in regard to the faulty Afrikaans I hear over the loudspeaker system at the airports. For years now when I arrive there or when I depart I hear “Sal mnr. Joubert asseblief, wat afreis na Kaapstad, by Inligting aanmeld?”. That is one of the verbs which must always have an object. One can “aanmeld” a theft or oneself, but one cannot simply “aanmeld”, and that is probably what is meant. It must have an object. I ask the Minister to bring this to the notice of the Administration. I mention this particularly because I think many improvements can be made to that loudspeaker system. The people who use it should receive some training in the use of a microphone and should be taught to improve their Afrikaans.

I notice that the amount to be voted for the Weather Bureau has been reduced. There are two points I wish to deal with. I would like to see our weather forecasting put on an equal plane to what they have in Britain and some of the Western countries, and particularly that a special service should be made available for farmers. In the case of Britain, on payment of a very small fee, one can get weather forecasts for a fortnight or three weeks ahead, with a degree of error, but with the error being minimized the closer one gets to the date on which the forecast was issued. Experience has shown that those forecasts are not only in the main very accurate, but they are of immense value. The point I want to make is this. I do not know, and I am quite incapable of assessing whether the amount of information available to the officials of our Weather Broadcasting Bureau is sufficiently accurate for them to be able to make accurate forecasts. We get information from various parts of South Africa, and from Marion Island, etc. Perhaps the Minister will tell us whether it is possible to say that with the information available to our forecasters they should be able to make the forecasts accurate. I realize the difficulties that the forecasters have, particularly with regard to certain parts of our country. I should like to ask the Minister whether we propose to open a weather station on Tristan da Cunha. Let me give an example of what I have seen myself. When we have had a weather forecast in the morning in Durban indicating what the weather will be on the east coast—I think it says the Pondoland coast, or north of Durban, or it simply says “north of Port Elizabeth”. I have come down by plane on a day when we have been told that there will be fresh to fair winds blowing from the south-east. Particularly in the days before we had the present aircraft, we flew at a lower altitude. Sir, I have crossed the border into Pondoland, in the wind blowing very strongly from the north-east, as shown by the smoke from big grass fires in Eastern Pondoland—smoke blowing right away, the wind hard north-east. Then only 30 or 40 miles further on you get a dead calm, and then a few miles further south of that you have the wind blowing in exactly the opposite direction. Sir, I am not going to blame the weather forecasters for making a mistake when they get conditions of that kind. But is it possible to forecast that kind of condition? Because if you have people in one part of that cosatal area who have taken the report in the morning that you are going to get a wind from the north-east and who then starts to burn a fire-break, secure in the knowledge that the wind is going to come from the north-east, and they then find that it blows from the south-west instead, then they are in trouble. I want to speak now as someone who is interested in this question of forestry firefighting, and the value to us of weather forecasts under those conditions. In the case of fire-fighting we deal with the matter from the point of view of humidity—the maximum temperature, the humidity—and with that goes the direction of the wind itself, and the weather forecasts could be of immense value to us and they are of immense value. The more accurate they are, naturally the more valuable they are, and the less accurate they are the more misleading they can be, and being misleading is worse than being inaccurate. It is better to have no forecast than to have a misleading forecast.

Then I want to move on to another aspect of this, and that is this question of rain and whether we can get rain or not. Let me say again that I am throwing no bricks at the weather forecasters because I do not know what the data is that they have at their disposal and whether it is adequate for the purpose of their forecast. But where you are going into timber—and. as you know, Sir, we have millions and millions of rand invested to-day, both in Government forestry and in privately owned forestry in this country—and you go in for planting and you have to have certain weather conditions which are associated entirely with rainfall precipitation, calm days and windy days, sunny days and all that sort of thing are all very interesting but it is no good to the man who is trying to plant his trees. People are ready there, possibly with hundreds of thousands of trees, and they are waiting for the day when they are going to get precipitation. But, what is more, they want to know that they are going to get rain on the following day. Because it is no good planting on one day and then finding that the next day you are going to have a strong wind with a blazing sun.

You know they do not control the weather; they only make forecasts.

Sir, I accept that, and I want the hon. the Minister to understand that what I am asking for is for the best possible kind of forecast with the money that we have available for the purpose, but to emphasize the need for accuracy. If the facts and the factors that are before our forecasters are inadequate for them to make a proper and a safe forecast, then in my opinion we should say so. We should say to the people, “This is a forecast to the best of our ability, but the factors upon which we base our forecast are insufficient and inadequate; we cannot give a fair forecast even for 24 hours, let alone for 48, on the basis of the facts and the factors that we have available to us”.

The weather is very unpredictable sometimes.

It exactly like the Government. After all, the Government is elected by the people, but the people have nothing whatever to do with the weather. But we do ask this unpredictable Government to do their best with regard to weather forecasts. Even if they cannot forecast their own actions, let them try to forecast the actions of the weather. Sir, I hope the Minister is not going to think that I am treating this matter in any spirit of levity. This question of weather forecasting can make a difference in our economy of tens of thousands, of hundreds of thousands, of rand per annum, if we can get reliable weather forecasts. The danger lies in the fact that the forecasts are unreliable and that people accept them as being of such a character that some reliance can be placed on those forecasts. As I say, I hope the Minister will be able to tell us what the factors are; what degree of reliability does he believe can be placed upon the forecasts that are made. Is it possible with the expenditure of more money to get better data, to get a different set of factors? It is possible in other countries. Is it merely a question of the expenditure of money? Why is it possible in Britain, in the case of the farmers’ broadcasts, for example, to get such reliable forecasts for days ahead when we have difficulty in even getting a safe broadcast here for 24 hours ahead?

Then I want to move on to the second point and that is the question of road safety about which we are hearing a great deal to-day, and quite rightly so. Motorists and others are continually exhorted to play their part. We see big advertisements with a hand pointing at you and saying underneath, “This means you” and “Road safety starts with you,” and all that kind of thing. Sir, I want to put this point: I believe that the National Transport Commission are keeping an overall chart showing the points at which accidents are taking place. At any rate, such charts are kept by the provincial roads department. Those charts will show that there are accidents over and over again taking place at certain spots, and I want to say at once that is because of the bad engineering and the bad principles upon which the road has been constructed. Sir, I am a layman, but I was in an official position once where I used to deal with technical people and professional people and I never got used to that smile on the face of my engineers when they said, “Well, Sir, it is difficult to explain to a layman about this, that or the other thing.” Sir, it is not so difficult when you see the same accidents taking place at the same spots over and over again. There is something wrong with that place. It is not that every driver happens to go a bit haywire when he comes along the road to that particular spot. There is something wrong with the engineering there—the radius, the camber, or the approach or something of that kind—and I hope that now that we are going on with our national road building scheme, we will at least learn the lessons of the past so that we do not build the new roads with those defects. Sir, I am one of those who are proud of the national road projects that have been carried out in the past. As other hon. members have said, for a country with relatively a small tax-paying population, we have done remarkably well. [Time limit.]

I want to refer to “H”, “Air Navigational Aids”. On a previous occasion I stated that air travel in South Africa is as safe as in any other part of the world, and in order to keep it so I should like to make a few remarks and ask the Minister to accept it in that spirit. We have a navigational aid network all over South Africa, and I think it was a very fortunate choice which was made when it was decided to use the V.O.R. system in South Africa. I think it has certain definite advantages over other systems. In that regard there is at the moment a reasonable network right across South Africa, and good use can be made of these methods. But when we come to landing aids, I believe that we have reached a very critical stage in aviation. Although we have the navigational aids, there is a definite lack of landing aids. I just want to mention a few examples. Let us take, firstly, the Bloemfontein Airport, which is also a diversion airport for international traffic to Jan Smuts. We find that none of the well-known aids, I.L.S. or G.C.A., exist and that there are only runway lights as landing aids at Bloemfontein. The Bloemfontein Airport normally handles approximately 40 flights per week, apart from the international traffic which may be diverted there. If we take East London we find that approximately 27 scheduled flights a week are handled there. There are only a non-directional beacon and a pilot beacon as navigational aids, and they are doubtful navigational aids at that, because the omnidirectional high frequency radio range or the V.O.R. at East London is not yet in use to the best of my knowledge. Until quite recently there was not yet an I.L.S. system in operation at Jan Smuts, but certain replacements have been made and I believe that the problems there have been solved completely. Also in regard to the D.F. Malan Airport, there can be no complaints at the moment as the result of the radar which is in operation, and the new radar system which is envisaged, the surveillance radar, ought to be able to solve all our problems in Cape Town.

It is not operating at the moment.

I know that the surveillance radar is not in operation at the moment. I had the privilege the other morning to watch how an aircraft was brought in. That is what they call the E.A.R. (precision approach radar). That is in operation and works very efficiently, but the S.R.E. is not in operation; the surveillance radar is not in operation yet, but is being installed there at the moment.

Mr. Chairman, I say that there are deficiencies and the sooner we remedy them, the more favourably it will influence the smooth flow of our air traffic. I also want to refer to some of our airports, and here I am thinking particularly of Kimberley. The hon. the Minister said, in reply to a question the other day, that the main runway 02/20 has been given a hard surface and at the moment it is the only runway suitable for Viscount aircraft. Now, it is true that the runway is 6,720 feet long, with extensions of 1,600 feet, but on a warm summer day, with a crosswind, that runway at Kimberley can create very critical conditions for the Viscount aircraft. I refer particularly to the so-called VI and V2 speed of an aircraft—the safety speed it must attain—and that VI and V2 speed for the Viscount can become very critical and the margin of safety can almost disappear at the Kimberley airport under certain circumstances. I believe that speedy attention should be devoted to an alternative runway at Kimberley. Of course there is no landing system in operation at Kimberley.

I want to refer to another idea, a new idea. We have approximately 709 registered aircraft in the Republic of South Africa at the moment and the traffic in certain guidance areas is becoming very heavy. I think, e.g., of the Pretoria-Rand complex, where we have a stream of international incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as a greatly increasing volume of military air traffic in that area. In view of the fact that we can foresee an expansion in our defence aviation, the area around the Rand and Pretoria may become congested with aircraft in the near future. I should like to suggest to the Minister to have the possibility investigated of prohibiting aircraft which are not supplied with serviceable two-way radio sets from entering certain guidance areas. That is a problem which arises from time to time. We find it also in other areas—I am thinking of Port Elizabeth—where aircraft of the regular air service must sometimes deviate and wait because light aircraft are flying on the course used for the safe landing of the larger aircraft in Pretoria. I think the Minister could truthfully investigate the total closing of certain flying areas if the aircraft is not equipped with a decent two-way radio set.

Finally, I want to refer to the amount of R40,000 the subsidy for the training of private pilots. At the moment we have approximately 975 registered private pilots in South Africa, who constitute a very useful potential to the country, particularly when the use of such trained people becomes necessary for military purposes. Although this is basic training, they are at a stage where they can be used to good effect for military purposes. I see further that 52 flying clubs are training pilots at the moment and that this amount, divided equally amongst them, amounts to R770 per flying club. That does not compare very favourably, e.g., with Australia. I mention the amounts in Australian pounds. There they grant £60 per private licence, 2s. per hour of flying training and £2,000 per annum per training aircraft, the total being £250,000.

The subsidy is R9 per hour, per flying hour, for the training of pilots.

That is possible. But I want to refer to the possibility that this amount of R40,000 could very fruitfully be extended. I believe that it would be an investment made in the interests of South Africa if we were considerably to increase this subsidy of R40,000 and thereby provide civilian training for pilots who will become a potential, and many of whom already are a potential, an immediately available potential, from which the Air Force and the air transport services in South Africa can draw recruits.

I was also greatly disappointed to find that in the Estimates there is no increase in the amount provided for subsidies for flying clubs. I have noticed in other discussions that the Minister of Defence is not unmindful of the need for modernizing and strengthening our air forces. In all recent warfare, where land forces have lost the support of the air forces, they have found themselves to be at a very great disadvantage. The ordering of modern machines will be of little avail without the airmen to fly them. With insufficient airmen it is impossible to run an Air Force. I would not like to suggest that the Minister of Defence would order machines without making provision for the training of men, but I would like to suggest that in all modern warfare the reserves available are always a very important factor, often a deciding factor.

An abundance of reserves is often the deciding factor in any form of warfare, and this is where the civil aviation clubs play an important part, even a vital part, in making the young men of the country air-minded. From travelling in other countries in recent years I have come to the conclusion that South Africa is lagging very seriously behind in the matter of air-mindedness, particularly in the matter of civil air-mindedness. Sir, I take Australia as an example because it is a country that is on a par with South Africa in many ways in the matter of advancement. In Australia practically all the large ranching properties have their airstrips and the owners of those properties have light planes with which they keep in touch with adjoining properties and adjoining villages and towns. Even doctors, nurses, educationists and businessmen make a great deal of use of light planes for getting around the country and keeping in contact with the outlying towns and the outlying farm properties. Light goods are distributed by air to a far greater extent than I find is the case in South Africa. That is one of the reasons why I feel disappointed that the amount set aside for subsidies to flying clubs has not been increased this year. It seems to me that this aspect of the Budget needs a good deal more consideration.

Civil aviation clubs, air training clubs, are by far the cheapest possible way of training airmen. At the same time they serve to arouse the interest of the young men in the country and to get them air-minded, and they also serve to train men for a profession which today is becoming more and more in demand throughout the world. At the outbreak of the last war it was found very necessary to make use of the plant and the machines and the men of these training clubs. They formed a very useful nucleus; they helped to prevent a serious time-lag in getting the air forces up to required strength. The work being done by civilian air clubs is of very great value to the country, both educationally, commercially, industrially and militarily, in many directions. The work being done by these clubs is of great advantage to the country and I feel that it is largely due to the lack of support given to these clubs in the past that South Africa is to-day undoubtedly lagging behind in this matter of air-mindedness. These clubs are a most valuable national asset and should receive greater help and encouragement from the Government.

Having generalized, I want just briefly to particularize. In East London there is a civil aviation club and a gliding club. They have been in existence for some time but they have been working against very great odds because the sword of Democles has been hanging over them for a long time. They have been informed by the Public Works Department that their hangar is scheduled to be taken down. Under those conditions it is impossible for them to work up enthusiasm in the work of their club. It is impossible to expand their work, their very laudible work, while they are in this position that their hangar may at any time be taken down, and then they will find themselves without coverage for their planes. Without the security of the knowledge that they have a permanent hangar, they cannot get on with their work, and I hope that in this matter the hon. the Minister will be able to give a definite assurance so that these people will know exactly where they stand.

The question of accurate weather forecasts which has been raised by the hon. member for South Coast (Mr. D. E. Mitchell) and Albany (Mr. Bowker) is of vital importance. That is obvious, but I believe that the Weather Bureau gives weather forecasts which are as accurate as it is possible for them to make it. I wish we could suggest something; I wish that there was a method of making more accurate forecasts. The mistakes made are of course only human errors which we must forgive. You will allow me, Sir, to refer to one forecast which was made about two years ago when the announcement was widely published that the lovely weather we had at Christmas right throughout the country was something of the past because on New Year’s Day the whole country would be wet. I am afraid the public does not always understand the language of the Weather Bureau. The whole country was “nat”, but not as the result of rain: it was due to something else. We just do not always understand the language they use.

Because that task is so impossible, I want to come back to earth, and associate myself with the hon. member for Standerton (Dr. Coertze). Here we have something which we can in fact control, if only we would take our courage in our hands in an attempt to deal with the two devils which rule supreme on our roads particularly on holidays. The one is the liquor devil and the other is the speed devil. It is those two devils which are responsible, in my opinion, for 90 per cent of the ugly and terrible accidents taking place on our roads. The hon. member for Standerton suggested something here which in his opinion would be an effective means of dealing with the speed devil. Well, I do not believe that is the best method. I can suggest much better methods. If I had the time I could have explained to that hon. member how easily the penalities he suggested could be evaded, because everybody, particularly the speed fiends, would just equip themselves with a pump which fits into the hole of the spark plug and in a few minutes’ time all four of his wheels will be inflated up again and then he will tell that motor car: Now you have new wind, and to make up for the time we have lost we will go a little faster.

But the traffic officer will stand next to him.

But that would mean that there would have to be a traffic officer appointed for every speed fiend in South Africa. It is particularly in this respect that I find fault with the traffic officers. One sees daily how the traffic officer, this great man, takes the number of someone who has parked one-hundredth of a quarter inch over the white line and then threatens him and tells him that this and that will happen to him. Yes, then he is a big man, but I ask hon. members on both sides of the House how many times they have seen a traffic officer trying to follow the speed fiends in Cape Town and in Johannesburg who go along at 70 or 80 miles an hour? How many times have they seen a traffic officer taking his courage in his hands to trap those speed fiends? No, they pretend not to notice it.

Are you now referring to ministerial cars on De Waal Drive?

The traffic officers should rather concentrate on catching the speed fiends, instead of threatening people who have parked just over the white line. Let me say here at once that I have never been prosecuted in my life. Hon. members should not think that I am making use of this forum to exculpate myself. I am one of the few drivers who has never in his life had to pay a penny for any form of contravention of the traffic regulations. If there is a man who deserves a medal, it is I, but I do not want one, because I would rather emphasize it by my deeds than by wearing a medal on my chest. I deprecate the fact that the real causes of the terrible road accidents are so obviously ignored. It makes me sad that people who know better and who sometimes talk on a high level refuse to put their finger on the sore spot. What do they do? We find at municipal congresses—not this year, but last year and in all the other years—some big man or other gets up and says: “Now we are going to make the road safe for you. Do you know what we are going to do? We are going to raise the age. We are not going to allow youngsters of 16 or 17 years to take out a driver’s licence”. That is the method they want to adopt to ensure road safety. The most reliable drivers are now being penalized because those great men do not have the courage really to deal with those people who are actually the cause of all the accidents on our roads. I would like to join the hon. member for Standerton in telling the hon. the Minister that is where the two faults lie. I should like to give the Road Safety Council all the powers they ought to have, all the powers they consider they should have in order to make the roads safer. I should also like to take this opportunity to compliment the newspapers which now daily publish photographs of those terrible scenes as the result of road accidents for the public to see, and where they show the public the awful sights and the bitter fruit we have to pluck as the result of the behaviour of the road hogs one finds over the length and breadth of South Africa. I want to compliment those newspapers which do this almost every day, because if there is one effective method of showing the public what the results are of the reckless behaviour of some drivers of vehicles, it is the way the Press is now depicting to the public the terrible consequences of these accidents. I want to say with all the force available to me to the country and to the people responsible for road safety that if they can combat those two devils, they will find that this is the only and the best method of avoiding accidents in South Africa, Sir, can you imagine a head-on collision happening if both drivers travelled at a moderate speed? We often see two cars colliding head-on. Can you imagine that happening if both drivers travel at a moderate speed? It can only take place if at least one of those drivers was imbued with the spirit of the speed fiend. We should stop looking for the fault in other spheres. We should stop bragging about how we will adopt a new method of promoting road safety. You can investigate the position and you will find—and that is the only conclusion to which I can come—that the serious, cruel and horrible accidents only take place when the drivers have been travelling too fast, or were perhaps under the influence of liquor. Because only a person who is not normal can drive as recklessly as one sometimes sees on corners or at cross-roads or on hills. He carries on as if he has bought the road and nobody except himself is entitled to be on that road. Then he suddenly finds that there is another person imbued with the same idea, namely that he also bought the road. In my speech a few years ago I raised practically the same points, and to-day I am even more convinced that these are the causes of the terrible accidents on the roads of South Africa, particularly in the big cities, and sometimes on the beautiful State roads where the driver of the vehicle thinks that the road belongs to him, and to him alone.

I do not intend to follow the hon. member, although the subject with which he dealt is an important one. The one argument I certainly won’t get mixed up in is whether you blow hot air or cold air into the tyres after the hon. member for Standerton (Dr. Coertze) has let them down.

I wish to return to the subject raised by the hon. member for Bethal-Middelburg (Mr. J. W. Rall) and the hon. member for East London (North) (Mr. Field). I want to take it a little further than the detail which was dealt with by those two hon. members, and look at the whole pattern of civil aviation in South Africa. The hon. member for Bethal-Middelburg has obviously made a study of this subject and he spoke with authority on the question of navigational aids. But that is only a symptom of the over-all trouble which is affecting civil aviation in South Africa to-day. Those concerned with it say, and I believe with some justification, that the division of civil aviation is the stepchild of the Department. I want to appeal to the hon. the Minister to accept parental responsibilities for this vital aspect of our communications. In the last report of the secretary —the annual report,—there is tagged on at the end of the report of 50 odd pages, six pages covering the whole of the 16 different heads under which Civil Aviation is dealt with, a matter of R2,500,000 out of the whole Budget. And yet we were handling something like 750,000 passengers in 1961 just at the four main airports of South Africa. There were 38,000 landings at those airports alone, and the number will be larger this year. I want to put the point to the Minister that in this world today everything is increasing in tempo, everything is more rushed and more hurried. Commerce and industry are more competitive, and air transport must play a bigger part as time goes on. I don’t believe that we are planning far enough ahead in the field of Civil Aviation. We are not planning for the future; we are planning perhaps to deal with to-day, but not looking ahead to the day when I believe civil aviation is going to be one of the major private transport methods covering the long distances which we have in this country. And that is apart from the question of defence on which we are now spending millions. Here we have a division of Civil Aviation with the principle accepted of subsidizing the training of pilots, and yet as the hon. member for Bethal-Middelburg said, we are doing very little about it. I want to go further. I have here a leading article reprinted from Air Facts of Africa. This is what they say about the subsidy scheme—

That is the opinion of a magazine representing commercial air interests in South Africa. And it is a point of view which I have heard expressed very strongly by people connected with the question of private flying. One of the issues for instance is the restriction to the age of 35 in the training scheme, whereunder only those under 35 can be trained. Time after time you find that the people under that age have not got the money; the people from 35 to 40 who can afford it are excluded from such a scheme because of the age limit. I know the hon. the Minister will shield behind the excuse that he has a committee which advises him on these matters, the Civil Aviation Advisory Committee. I do not want to deal with that on this Vote. We have a Bill before the House which deals with the C.A.A.C. and I would rather deal with it on that occasion. But I would like to quote just one point of view, also from the same editorial, where it says—

It goes on—

These are views which come from people connected intimately and directly with civil flying, and I feel that consultation which is available to the Minister should be used to a greater extent and that more notice should be taken of the views of people who themselves in their daily lives are connected with the problem. The president of the Commercial Civil Aviation Association of Southern Africa in his last annual report, at the end of last year on 17 November 1961, said the following—

The whole theme of his address is a desperate appeal for a change in attitude to the whole problem of civil aviation, a desperate appeal for a far-sighted, broader view, which is not going to deal only with the problems of the moment but which is going to plan for the future, and which in that planning is going to make use of the knowledge, the advice and the background of people whose whole lives are tied up in civil aviation. There is, for instance, the question of feeder-services, which had been discussed often with the Minister, but the hon. Minister refuses categorically to consider subsidies for feeder-services. Yet I know he has had offers made to him. In one case he could have saved the South African Airways R50,000 had he been prepared to subsidize half the loss which his own Airways were losing on a particular route. If he had been prepared to pay half that amount as a subsidy to a commercial feeder-service, he could have saved money and advanced civil aviation. There is the question of co-operation with the Post Office to get mail contracts for feeder-services. There is the question of the overall planning which will ensure that private commercial aviation can fill the gaps which State airlines obviously cannot do themselves. State airlines must necessarily deal with the major carriage of passengers. There we have the main links, and obviously we should be bringing in commercial firms to feed those services. But there are other aspects of civil aviation causing concern. For instance I would like to go further than the hon. member for Bethal-Middelburg and plead for an air safety council. We have a road safety association, why not an air safety council? I have not time now to go into the details, but this is a matter that had been put to the Minister. It will be a council which could deal with the whole principle of safety in the air. There are innumerable aspects. I want to cross swords with the Minister on one of these. He stated in reply to a question earlier this year that the instrument-landing system at Jan Smuts had only been out of action, parts of it, for short periods over the last two years. My information is that at the Itinerant Operators’ Conferences over the last two years this issue of the I.L.S. has been raised over and over again. [Time limit.]

There is one matter I should like to bring to the notice of the Minister of Transport. In my constituency, at Bonnievale, which is populated mostly by wine farmers, the main road goes through Bonnievale and at pressing time when the farmers are harvesting their grapes there is a terrific delay. I was there recently when a long line of lorries loaded with grapes stood waiting at the crossing, and I want to ask the hon. the Minister of Transport to bring this to the notice of the Minister of Railways and to see whether a change cannot be made and whether the station cannot be shifted a little further from the crossing so that there will not be this delay in future. At harvesting time the farmers are in a hurry to reap their crops. Every wine farmer has 40 or 50 or 60 workers in his employ cutting grapes and the lorries go to the cellars to deliver the grapes. The farmer perhaps has two or three lorries which are fully loaded and then his lorries are delayed at the crossing. The farmers there have been asking for a long time that a change should be made, and I would like to ask the Minister to bring it to the notice of the Minister of Railways whether this little station, which was built in the time of the old Cape Central Railways, cannot be shifted a little so that this delay will be eliminated and the trains do not delay people there for so long.

Mr. Chairman, may I take the privilege of the half-hour in case I go just over the ten minute mark?

I would like to say to the hon. the Minister a few words about the absolute necessity of encouraging, to a greater degree than hitherto, tourist traffic to South Africa. Tourism these days is big business, much more important business indeed than many of the other affairs which occupy a great deal of the time and energy of this House. In South Africa it is one of our most important export industries. It is a R40,000,000 a year industry, and that is big money in any country. The earnings in foreign currency which flow from the pockets of visiting tourists amount to more than R40,000,000 a year and that makes it, if my reckoning is correct, South Africa’s fourth most remunerative export industry. We should, I believe, become more alive to the value of spending increased amounts of money to attract tourists to our shores. They confer upon us what I might describe as a two-fold benefit. First of all, they produce valuable and much-needed income by way of foreign currency, which must delight the heart of the Minister of Finance. Secondly, they bring tangible advantages on account of the goodwill and better understanding of conditions in this country they acquire and sympathy they gain with our problems. A tourist who visits us goes back more accurately informed than if he had merely read reports about us. He goes back having marked and learned, and I hope inwardly digested, all the goodness that is here. He has a better balanced idea of our country and the way we live. He can talk from actual experience and he spreads goodwill in other countries, in a much more effective way than some of the ministerial representations made by those politicians who have lately spoken for us at UNO.

I will talk first of all about the financial aspect. This invisible export trade is of immense importance to us, and I think the Minister of Finance must be aware of the big part it plays in helping him to achieve a favourable balance of payments situation. He must know how it aids our foreign exchange position. He should, I believe, do more than he now does to support and increase the earnings from tourism so as to help himself and help our country. The formula of assistance has changed, as it should have changed. At one time the Railway Administration bore all too great a part of the burden of expenditure connected with the Tourist Corporation and Treasury all too little. It has now been reduced from two-thirds to one-third, and I think that is an excellent move. The Railways do not share anything like equally in the benefits which are brought, in the way of financial gain to this country, by the tourists. They get only a minor, fractional benefit from the tourist trade. Yet they play such a big part in encouraging tourists to come to our country. I am not suggesting that control over the Tourist Corporation should pass out of the hands of the Department of Transport. I think it is essential that tourism should not be a Department of State. There are many countries, including Britain, which are contemplating the creation of Ministeries of Tourism because of the valuable contributions which are made by that industry to the foreign exchange position of every European country. The French Finance Minister said this about tourism—

If it can do that for France and Europe, it can do it for us. But, as I have said, I am not urging a separate Ministry. I do not think it would be wise to give this large and valuable industry any political tinge or flavour. Heaven help us for example if tourism in SATOUR should come under the control of the Department of Information! Prospective immigrants as well as prospective tourists need statistics and not politics; they need information and not propaganda. In fact the only point on which I criticize an otherwise excellent report, issued last year by our Tourist Development Corporation, is where they say this in their annual report “As the public overseas is influenced by unfavourable Press reports concerning political developments on the African Continent, SATOUR has taken active steps to disseminate correct information among travel agents, carrier representatives and other influential circles in foreign countries.”

Mr. Chairman, I do not believe that SATOUR should consider it their function to excuse Nationalist policies to prospective tourists or try to explain the dubious policy of the Government to prospective visitors. My advice to SATOUR is to keep politics out of this particular business and industry, as indeed every other country strives to do. Use the ordinary means of advertising; take space in those newspapers and magazines which have been effectively used in the past; make films; issue circulars and editorials; concentrate on maintaining good public relations; print calendars and brochures. One thing I note, in SATOUR’s annual report, with a great degree of amusement. As you know, Sir, we have a Minister of Posts and Telegraphs who refuses to entertain the idea of television in South Africa. We are practically the only progressive country in the world without television. Yet the Tourist Corporation reports that “one of the most effective means of reaching a massive public market and encouraging tourism has been an extensive use of television.” Will the Minister bring that opinion to the attention of his short-sighted colleague. As I have said, we do not want to mix politics with tourism. We should remember that 83 per cent of the tourists who come here, are disinterested in politics. They come here for a holiday. The 9 per cent of businessmen that visit us are well-informed from other sources as to what the economic potentials of this country are. They do not need political indoctrination. We have unparalleled attractions in South Africa and they should be advertised to attract tourists without any political background or slant being necessary. We have unequalled scenery and climate; we have unique game reserves, we have flora and fauna of unsurpassed beauty and variety. But I would suggest to the Minister (and he perhaps will pass this on to SATOUR), in an endeavour to attract tourists, not to overdo the wild life aspect of South Africa’s appeal. Do not be too keen to show, in every advertisement or brochure primitive Africa. An occasional picturesque rickshaw boy is enough. Interesting features of African life should, of course, be featured, but we are apt to overdo it. We run the risk of giving the overseas public the idea that we are still a primitive country. I think we should stress, Sir, other aspects of our attractions. We should make it clear that we are not merely a great country with game reserves, waterfalls and wonderful scenery. Of course these are attractions in their proper place, but we should also make the world aware that we are a country where people live the same sort of life as those in other Western countries. We have great and modern cities with fine hotels; our roads are excellent; our transport, both by land and air, is getting better and better as the constructive criticism of this Opposition forces greater efficiency upon our state-owned transport system. I think we have everything. I am sure that the hospitality and friendliness of our country is unsurpassed, and must make tourists feel that they would like to return. May I suggest a slogan to the Tourist Development Corporation? “Come to South Africa—only the Government is bad. All else is excellent in this fine country”. Remember, too, that the businessman and industrialist visiting our country does not necessarily want to know about the wild life or flora. He is interested to learn that here is a fine and profitable market, with all the facilities needed; raw materials, power, light, transport, and above all a plentiful supply of excellent labour.

As I have said, tourism is a great industry. But, it can be greater. I submit that we could profitably invest more money in it. We should bring greater imagination to bear on exploiting our advantages.

Most of our visitors come to us from Rhodesia, from Southern Africa. We should do all we can to attract a greater number from the United States, from Britain and from the Continent. Tourism from Australia is increasing and this may in turn help to make our air service to Australia pay its way in future. Tourism has amazing and profitable potentialities. That is why this great industry should not continue to be treated by this Government, as a Cinderella. We must invest more in it; we must spend larger sums, to promote it. If we do so I am sure they will pay rich dividends.

Before I finish I would like to pay a tribute to the excellent work SATOUR is doing. They have done an outstanding job under great difficulties. They always produced excellent material. They are an example to this Government in many respects. The annual report on Tourism for the year 1959-’60, was laid upon the Table of the House by the Minister of Transport last year, right at the end of the Session, in June. Only one copy was made available to Parliament; and that one copy was multigraphed in Afrikaans only. One copy for the whole of Parliament! I think something should be done to remedy that neglect. Fortunately SATOUR itself, out of its own funds, printed at a later date, an excellent annual report. It was most readible, most attractive and informative. But surely they should not use their own funds to do the Department of Transport’s work. Every penny of SATOUR’s money is meant to attract tourists to this country. The printing of the Annual Report should be paid for by the Treasury or Transport, in my opinion; and we should have more copies available than the single copy in one language.I hope the hon. the Minister will bring what pressure he can to bear upon his colleague and bench-mate, the Minister of Finance, to prise more money from him, by way of appropriation, for the Tourist Development Corporation and for the general encouragement of tourism to this country. I am sure it will prove to be a very valuable investment for the future.

The hon. member for Krugersdorp (Mr. M. J. van den Berg) referred to road accidents this morning and said that speed was the main cause of accidents. I cannot agree with the hon. member there, for the simple reason that it has not been proved that speed is the main cause of accidents. Here in South Africa we have the open roads and the wide areas and everybody drives fast, but it is not necessarily the people who drive fast who cause the accidents. Have we any statistics available in the Republic to indicate what the cause of all the accidents is? In America they have statistics showing how accidents are caused. A year or so ago I read that 75 per cent of the accidents in America were caused at speeds of under 45 miles per hour, but here in South Africa we just do not have the statistics, and I would like to draw the attention of the House to the necessity for obtaining such statistics, in that way to promote road safety by studying those statistics.

I do not know whether I am allowed to discuss this matter under this Vote, but I just want to say that here in the south the west is completely cut off from the east. There is, e.g., no proper road link between the west and the east, the Western Cape Province and the Eastern Cape Province, to Natal. If I want to travel from Aliwal North to Natal on a tarred road, I must go via Queenstown and East London. Our whole roads system is concentrated in the Eastern Cape, in the Transkei, the Bantu area. I feel that we should now build our roads in the White area and no longer in the Bantu area. It would be easy to build a national road, e.g. from Aliwal North or Middelburg, via Barkly East and along the Western Border of the Transkei to Natal. It is essential for us to consolidate our routes of communication.

There are a few matters which I would like to bring to the notice of the hon. the Minister. The first is more or less the same that the hon. member for Durban (Point) (Mr. Raw) referred to. It is the question of the subsidization scheme for the training of young pilots. A year or two ago the Department saw fit to do away with this training scheme. Thereafter the Department reinstituted it, something of which we on this side of the House are particularly glad. But now these clubs tell us—and I should like to hear from the Minister what the policy is— that they find it almost impossible, in regard to the application of this training scheme, to continue with their activities, because the Department wants the subsidy to be applied only to those young men who become learner pilots and who are under the age of 35 years.

I know the hon. member for Durban (Point) referred to it, but I want to put it to the Minister that most of the members of these clubs are people who have already reached the age of 35. They are people who can afford it. In the case of clubs which have quite a number of members above that age and only a few who are under that age, they find it very difficult, with this subsidy, to get enough revenue to cover their expenses. They find it very difficult to keep the clubs going with the small amount of money they get. I want to plead with the Minister not to draw that distinction. I know it is very important that we should give these young men the opportunity to receive training, but the men of 35 years and over, who already have pilots’ licences, are just as important if one day we have trouble in the country and when they can be called upon for service. Just look at the pilots we have at the moment in South African Airways. How many of them are so young? It is particularly the man who has had long experience and who has reached a mature age who can instil most confidence in the passengers. Therefore, I again want to bring it to the notice of the Minister and ask him to tell us what the policy will be and whether it is not possible that in future a change may be made.

The second matter I wish to touch on is this. I see that in this report, on page 44, it is said by the Department of Transport that all the airports in the public category and the majority of airfields in the private category are maintained in a satisfactory way. Of course I do not quarrel with the word “satisfactory”. It depends on what these people regard as being satisfactory. I want to tell the Minister that some of these airfields throughout the country, which are not under the control of flying clubs, are not in such a good condition at all. There are holes, mole-hills and ant-heaps, and bushes grow high there. The Municipality, or whatever authority controls it, does not maintain those flying-fields properly.

And sometimes sheep graze there.

The hon. member for Parow (Mr. S. F. Kotzé) has now mentioned something which I saw myself a year or two ago. I saw that an aircraft wanted to land and that they first had to chase the sheep and the goats off the runway. I want to put it to the Minister this way. A year or so ago I had the opportunity to travel from Port Elizabeth to Oudtshoorn in a Dakota of South African Airways. We had to land at Plettenberg Bay, and on that airfield we almost hit a donkey—of course not in the air but on the ground. That brings me to another point in connection with this type of airfield. Take a field which is not so important, like the one at Plettenberg Bay. I say that it should be properly supervised. A retired Railway official or a local farmer should not be asked to keep an eye over what happens there. No, when aircraft have to land, the airfield should be under proper supervision so that they can be kept in a proper state of repair.

The third matter I wish to refer to is this. In terms of the Advertising on Roads and Ribbon Development Act, certain restrictions have been placed on advertising along roads, and the question of advertising along roads can be placed under the control of a controlling body. Now I want to ask the Minister what the actual policy is. I know it has something to do with the application of the Act, but just recently I have noticed that it has become a habit on the part of some institutions, e.g. to advertise the brewing of beer along the roads. I have no objection to beer being advertised, but I do object to the place where it is advertised.

I take it you also become thirsty sometimes.

Yes, I will come to the thirst. That is just why it is so dangerous. Near the place where I live, there is a small town in the Karoo—there is a huge advertisement at a most dangerous spot just alongside the national road.

Order! This whole matter has already been discussed this Session with reference to the relevant Bill which was introduced.

Sir, that is quite correct, but I just want to know from the Minister what the policy is in regard to that sort of thing.

That Act is not even in operation yet.

But, Sir, these are things which happened during the past six or seven months.

The Act particularly gave us the power to stop that sort of thing.

Then let me put my question this way. Is it the Minister’s intention when implementing this new Act …

Order! We have already had a debate on that subject this Session, and that debate cannot be repeated now.

Sir, it is not my desire to repeat the debate. I just want to point to the dangers …

The hon. member must abide by my ruling.

Mr. Chairman, I am quite prepared to abide by your ruling. Then I just want to say that I wanted to bring to the notice of the Minister these two matters, viz. the question of the flying clubs and the proper maintenance of our airfields.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to deal with the question of road transport and the restrictions on the private operator. I agree with the hon. member for Durban (Point) (Mr. Raw) when he refers to restrictions on civil aviation, private road transport is in the same position. According to the report of the Department of Transport, on page 36, the emphasis seems to be on restricting the conveyance of goods by road. The history of the control of transport started when the Transportation Boards were formed. They were formed with the object of trying to regulate the chaos which had come into existence with the introduction of road transport and of trying to protect the Railways against uncontrolled private transport. But you find that invariably, when a control board of any sort is established, the board really over-steps the objects for which it was established and goes far beyond its original purpose. We see that in the case of road transport. Every member will agree that it is to the country’s benefit to develop a strong and sound private transport industry. But that will never happen while we have the restrictions which we do have under the control system in force at the moment. It is strange, Sir, that whenever the Railways open a transport route it is invariably run at a loss. But where the private user operates he does so at a profit. You find that in the North Western Cape private companies operate at a considerable profit and they pay substantial dividends. They run at a regular schedule and their rates are in line with those of the Railways. I would like to make a plea to the hon. the Minister to relax the position as far as road transport is concerned. Where he considers that road transport is necessary the routes should be made available to the public or road transport companies so that they can tender for certificates to operate on those particular routes. As you know, Mr. Chairman, road transport companies do not only pay a tax on the fuel which they use but they also pay a tax on the vehicles which they purchase, whereas with the Department of Transport that does not happen. Until quite recently all the petrol in the country areas was conveyed in drums. A most unsatisfactory state of affairs. It took years to convince the Government of how unsatisfactory it was to convey petrol in drums. Offers were made by the suppliers to convey the petrol by road, even at no loss to the Government. To-day we have the trailer-tanker service which is working very well and I must congratulate the Government on their efforts in that direction. But it meant a considerable capital outlay to construct those units. That could have been avoided had we allowed the local supplier to use his own transport.

What do you propose should the Railways carry?

They should carry the goods on the rails and not go off them. That is a very good question, Mr. Chairman. The Railways are railways, but you find to-day that the Railways are developing into a terrific national road transport system, as they have in England, they do not pay their fair share in the way of licences, or in the way of taxation on fuel and on the vehicles which they use. It should be the policy of the Government whereever possible to encourage private enterprize to take these services over, and not to run these services at a loss for which the taxpayer eventually has to pay. The reply has always been that these road transport companies operate where the high-rated traffic is and that they leave the low-rated traffic alone. I think that where a route is opened and the transport companies tender for those certificates they should carry the high and the low-rated traffic. They should operate on the same basis as the Railways. There should not be any preference.I think that the argument used that private transport companies only go for the high-rated traffic is probably true, but when the Minister opens a route they should take both the high and the low-rated traffic. The necessity of having a private road transport system was amply illustrated when they had the coal crisis on the Witwatersrand. The Railways were not in a position to supply the users of coal on the Witwatersrand and private companies were called in. Hon. members will remember that they transported coal from Witbank to the Rand. Admittedly, they ruined the roads, but the roads had not been built to carry such heavy traffic.

It was only because they were government subsidized that they were able to do it.

I do not know about a Government subsidy. Then I come closer home and I want to refer to the passenger traffic. Sir, transport should be in the public interest. The Railways are run in the public interest and we should never create the position where monopolies can control that position. Only recently in Cape Town an individual applied for permission to run a mini-cab service. It would have been useful in Cape Town with its narrow streets, but his application was turned down. It was replaced by a bus service. The bus service runs on a scheduled route and the service is absolutely useless for people who want to go from one part of the town to another part where there is no bus service. Had the applicants been allowed to run this light-taxi service it would have relieved congestion and assisted the public.

We have had reference made to the pirate taxi service. That comes about through inadequate rail and bus services and badly located rail links and where the service is not adequate. That is why you get the pirate taxi service. When the Government sees that position developing, they should encourage other operators to go in and to provide the necessary service. Then you will get rid of the pirate service. Or if the Railways want to protect themselves, they should provide a feeder service. When boards deal with applications they should take the interests of the public into account when granting certificates. You find local transport companies who apply and are not in competition with the Railways, they carry sand, stone and other goods but their certificates are also restricted. That is one thing that I do not understand. When a new operator starts he has great difficulty in obtaining a certificate. We should not put the Transportation Board in the position where they are protecting monopolies. They are there in the public interests and to regularize transport as far as possible. Transport certificates should not become like liquor licences, they should not constitute goodwill. I think that is wrong. [Time limit.]

The hon. member for Wynberg (Mr. Russell) asked me to deal with the construction of national roads. I can give him the following information: In regard to the national road van Rhynsdorp/Vioolsdrift: Construction unit working from Garies towards Bitterfontein, Earthworks in progress between mileages plusminus 36—18. Up to the end of March, 1962, approximately six miles of formation has been completed. On the balance of the sub-section between mileage 36—18 the work has reached various stages of completion. It is estimated that the road formation will be completed to Bitterfontein by about the end of March, 1964, and the bituminous surfacing early in 1965. R590,000 on estimates for this year (1962/63). Special Road Upington to Prieska: From Groblershoop to Marydale, a distance of approximately 35 miles, the road formation has been completed and surfaced up to Marydale except for a short gap at Draghoender where a bridge has still to be constructed over the railway line. Free State: National Road Villiers/Harrismith: Seventy-three miles completed and tarred and the road will be completed at the end of next year. Special road between Rouxville and Bethlehem: Surveying of this project has commenced and construction will start during 1962. Transvaal: National road Villiers/Heidelberg: Earthworks in progress—should be completed at the end of 1963 or early in 1964. Doubling of the Johannes-burg/Heidelberg and Pretoria/Johannesburg roads and Johannesburg/Eastern by-pass is being planned. Special Road Bedfordview/ Benoni/Welgedacht/Springs: This is being planned and expropriation is in progress. Special Road Gollel/Piet Retief: Thirty-seven miles have been completed and tarred. A contract has been accepted for the completion of the remaining portion during the next three years. Natal: National Road Gingindhlovo/ Golel: Surveying and planning are in progress and several bridges are already being built. Special road Eshowe/Vryheid: Surveying and planning area in progress.

The hon. member wanted to know whether I had approached the Minister of Finance for a more generous formula to finance road funds. I will be only too pleased to obtain more money for the Road Fund, but I am afraid that the position is such that the Government is not prepared to allocate any additional funds for the construction of roads at this stage. The hon. member suggested that I should render greater assistance to local authorities for the building of through-ways. I want to inform him that the money approved for through-ways is as follows: Johannesburg R14,000,000;Durban R10,000,000; Port Elizabeth R5,000,000 and Pretoria R10,000,000. Several other places are still under consideration.

The hon. member also wanted to know what the formula was in regard to the losses sustained on the Bantu services which are being paid by Treasury. The hon. member will recollect that the Minister of Railways dealt with this matter in his reply to the Budget debate and that he advised the hon. member at that time that the agreement had almost been finalised and that the agreement must be satisfactory to both the Railway Administration and Treasury.

The hon. member for Wynberg also dealt with the tourist traffic. I cannot agree with him more, namely, that tourism should eventually become one of the very big industries of South Africa. At the moment, of course, we are only receiving a small number of tourists. When you compare the number of tourists coming to South Africa and the number going to other countries overseas, you find that the number coming to South Africa is infinitesimal. I think that some 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 tourists visited Rome during the course of last year. South Africa can offer attractions to tourists which no other country in the world can offer them. There I also agree with the hon. member. Satour is doing a very good job of work with the limited funds at their disposal. I am always trying to obtain more funds from my colleagues and I can assure the hon. member that the Cabinet is very sympathetic to the allocating of funds for tourism. Satour has now been placed in the position of gradually extending its operations throughout the world and we have the assurance that additional funds will be obtained from Treasury. There is also the question of obtaining the necessary staff. Satour has recently opened offices in Australia and at Los Angeles and at Frankfurt. These offices are doing excellent work. Time does not allow me to give the hon. member particulars of all the inquiries which these new offices have received. I think that it may be of interest to the House, however, if I informed hon. members that at Frankfurt, which is a comparatively new office, the number of inquiries during the first quarter of 1962 totalled 2,391 as against 1,033 during the first quarter of 1961. They started operations in Sydney in September, 1961, in which month 85 inquiries were attended to. In February, 1962 the total number of inquiries handled had already increased to 1,093. This compares favourably with the inquiry rate at established offices like London which has been established for a longer period of time. As funds become available the activities of the Tourist Corporation will be extended. I can give the hon. member the assurance that the Tourist Corporation consists of a dedicated body of men. The Director of Tourism is an exceedingly able officer and no stone is left unturned to attract tourists to South Africa. The hon. member said that politics must be kept out of tourism, but politics have never entered it. The tourist offices are quite separate from the Department of Information.

In their annual report they mention the fact that they do issue brochures on the political situation.

That may be a good very good thing. South Africa is so misrepresented overseas that many of the tourists may be under the impression that we are on a verge of a revolution. Consequently they must be assured that South Africa is quite safe; that the political situation is stable; that there is an excellent and a stable Government in South Africa. [Laughter] That, of course, is always an additional attraction to potential investors in South Africa. What they really should also be told is that we have such a very weak and ineffective Opposition. That may also be an additional attraction to investors.

Does the Minister not think that one photograph of a family with a child being nursed by an African nanny will do more good to explain our safety than a thousand words on defending an incident like Sharpeville?

No, I do not think so. It is merely a question of what is more important and what is of the greatest attraction to tourists. The hon. member also said that we should not over-emphasize our primitive life and our wild life. I agree with him that the accent should not only be on that. That is why the Tourist Corporation has made such films as Land of Contrasts where they show the contrast between the development in South Africa, the tremendous progress that has been made over the years and the wild life and the primitive life so that potential tourists can see both sides of the picture—the development and the primitive life. But I think the hon. member realizes that the primitive life and the wild life are great tourist attractions. People do not come here simply to have a look at Johannesburg and Cape Town. Tourists come mainly to see what other countries cannot offer them. But as I have said, the Corporation is doing an excellent job of work; their offices are gradually being extended. As a matter of fact, I visited the Frankfurt office a few months ago and I was very impressed with the work which is being done there. I think Germany has a very big potential of tourists to South Africa. Those people are fairly well to do and they can afford to come to South Africa whereas in many other countries in Europe the ordinary man cannot afford a trip to South Africa.

*The hon. member for Winburg (Mr. Sadie) also referred to the Tourist Coporation and said that rest-camps should be built in conjunction with the Orange River Scheme and that roads ands airports should be provided. In regard to rest-camps, that is not the task of the Tourist Corporation. Its task is to attract tourists to South Africa. The duty to provide facilities rests on the local authorities or the provincial authorities. The building of rest-camps is therefore not the duty of the Tourist Corporation but of the other authorities. The building of flying-fields is the task of the Department of Transport, if such flying-fields are considered necessary. The building of roads is a matter for the Provincial Administrations, and the building of national roads is a matter for the National Transport Commission. The Tourist Corporation has to propagate the attractions of South Africa overseas, to attract tourists.

The hon. member for Pietermaritzburg (District) (Capt. Henwood) spoke about third party insurance. As I informed him by way of interjection, I hope to receive the Committee’s report within the next few weeks. I do not know what the recommendations will be, but I believe they will be important recommendations, in which case they will require amendments of the Act. If it is at all possible and advisable, and if I accept the recommendations, I will introduce legislation before the end of the Session, but it will have to be agreed legislation, otherwise it cannot go through this Session. Hon. members will have an opportunity to study the report as soon as it becomes available. As regards air pollution on national roads, I can inform him that the Safety Council is making representations to the Provincial authorities.

Several hon. members spoke about navigational aids. I can give the House the assurance that it is the policy of the Department to provide the best navigational aid equipment and to take all safety measures possible for our aircraft at the various airports, but of course it must be taken into account what cost is involved in equipping airports where there is not a very high density of traffic, with navigational aids such as the instrument landing system. We have instrument landing systems at the major airports namely Jan Smuts, D. F. Malan and Louis Botha. At other airports we have other aids which are quite effective, but because the traffic density is so low the installation of an instrument landing system is not justified. I can give hon. members an indication of what equipment is provided at the different airports. At Bloemfontein, at the J.B.M. Hertzog Airport, which is really an all-weather airport where there is hardly ever any fog or mist and where the density of traffic is very low, we have the following equipment in operation: We have the non-directional beacon, very high frequency directional range, distance-measuring equipment, radio telephony and a teleprinter to Cape Town, Jan Smuts, Kimberley, Port Elizabeth, Welkom, Upington, Keetmanshoop and Windhoek, we have also wireless telegraphy, point to point and ground to air and we have the runway lighting reports, which is the usual thing. But then hon. members must remember that the air controllers are always in direct telephonic communication with the pilot, so even if there is no instrument landing system it is still perfectly safe at that airport for planes to come down under all conditions. East London was unsafe because it had only one runway, and when there was a crosswind the planes could not land, but now the cross runway has been completed and planes can land under all conditions. Hon. members must also realize that even when you have an instrument landing system and radar control and all the other equipment required, the pilots must still have a 300-ft. ceiling before they are allowed to come down. Even at Jan Smuts, if the ceiling is lower than 300 feet, the planes are not permitted to land. I can assure hon. members that we keep abreast with all the modern developments in this regard and that safety for our aircraft is Priority No. 1.

*The hon. member for Wakkerstroom (Mr. Martins) objected to the State subsidizing these Bantu services in the cities to the locations. That is a matter of Government policy. The Railway Administration was compelled to build these lines and to buy rolling stock as the result of Government policy, namely that the Natives should live in their own residential areas which are generally quite a long distance from their work. The administration insisted that, in view of the fact that it was Government policy, it was not prepared to bear those losses and that the Government should bear them, and that was agreed to. Therefore, if the hon. member wants to have this policy changed, he should have raised the matter under the Prime Minister’s Vote.

In regard to the Levy Fund, as the hon. member knows, this is a levy on employers and those funds can only be used to subsidize road transport in the area in which there is this levy on the employer. Where there are no bus services to be subsidized, the levy is abolished. There are certain credit balances in certain areas. Those are retained, because the possibility is always there that these services may be instituted, but the levy is paid exclusively by the employers and the money levied in one particular area may not be used to subsidize services in any other area.

The hon. member for North-East Rand (Brig. Bronkhorst) referred to the roads south of Pretoria, and particularly the new road between Johannesburg and Pretoria. It is correct that a road will be built, and that the existing road is not going to be widened. There are many sound reasons for it. In the first place, the new road must be built to through-way standards, i.e. there must be no level crossings. In addition, it must be a four-lane road. Therefore it is not only a question of widening the road to provide four lanes, but all the crossings must be elminated and service roads have to be built, and there are many parts of that old road, such as at Halfway House, where there is no space for service roads. Therefore it is not merely a question of the cost, but it will be difficult to build the present road to through-way standards and consequently a new road must be built, and it will go through those smallholdings, but the people who have to sacrifice some of their land for the new road will of course be compensated for it. Then it is intended to build the deviation road just before one gets to the Swartkop Golf Club, where the road circles Pretoria and again links up with the other national road to the north. The hon. member for Pretoria (District) (Mr. Schoonbee) also raised the matter of the circle at Fountains. That is a matter for the Municipality because it falls within the municipal area. But the National Transport Commission has already declared its wilingness to subsidise Pretoria in regard to the building of through-ways. I do not know what the plans of the Municipality are in regard to that particular complex, but what the National Transport Commission will tackle is the building of the new roads, the building of the ring roads around Pretoria, so that the traffic can flow through without obstruction.

The hon. member for Pretoria (District) and various other hon. members also referred to the building of new national roads. I agree that we need to build new national roads, but unfortunately funds are limited. Therefore when the building of a new national road has to be decided on, we have to consider which road is the most necessary. That is determined in co-operation and as the result of consultations with the various Provincial Administrations, because they build the roads. It is only after consultation has taken place and agreement has been arived at, and the priority list has been drawn up that it is decided which roads will be built in the ensuing year, and that is subject to the funds available. Therefore, although I am very sympathetic in regard to the building of roads like the one from Alexandria to East London, the funds simply are not available. We must therefore concentrate on the most important national roads and first complete them before we can build the others.

The matters in regard to road safety referred to by the hon. members for Standerton (Dr. Coertze) and Krugersdorp (Mr. M. J. van den Berg) will be brought to the notice of the Road Safety Council, but I again want to point out that body has no executive powers. The Provincial Administrations are responsible for the road ordinances and their application, and all the Road Safety Council can do is to make representations to the Provincial Authorities in regard to amendments of the ordinances. The suggestions made by the hon. members will be brought to the notice of the Road Safety Council.

But surely not the wheel-pumping suggestion made by the hon. member for Standerton?

Any suggestion may be considered. I do not say it will be implemented.

I have replied to the hon. member for Middelburg in regard to the instrument landing systems. It has been found that although we do not have it at certain airports there is nevertheless no lack of safety in regard to the landing and taking off of aircraft. In regard to Kimberley, it is correct that there is only one runway, but if the hon. member looks at the Loan Estimates, he will see that funds have been made available for the building of another runway there, and we hope to make a start with it this year. In regard to the subsidy scheme, various hon. members referred to that matter. Allow me just to say that the funds are limited. R40,000 is very little. Consequently we had to decide how to spend this R40,000 in the best possible way. The scheme was drafted and submitted to the Civil Aviation Advisory Committee, and they approved of it. It is very necessary to have an age limit, because one must of course train young men for defence. If war breaks out it is not the old people who are called up, but the young men who are called up first. Therefore an age limit had to be laid down, but the money is being spent in the best possible manner. Here I have about four or five pages of the scheme, but time will not allow me to explain it now. It is in regard to the training provided, the number of hours of training, the amount paid per hour, etc. and then the advanced training, how many hours that should be and the amount paid per hour.

Then in regard to the issue of commercial pilots’ licences and ratings, there are 75 possible units at R145 each. The scheme has to be spread over a large number of projects. It cannot concentrate on the training of only one aspect of commercial flying. Commercial pilots’ licences, instructors’ ratings, instrument ratings, purchase of gliders, purchase of parachute equipment. This training scheme has to be spread over a large number of projects and the funds are limited. This scheme has been accepted by the Civil Aviation Advisory Committee which consists of practical flyers, but if more money is obtained from the Treasury, of course more general subsidies will be given.

The hon. member for Durban (Point) (Mr. Raw) said that air transport must play a bigger part and we must plan ahead, but he did not say what planning was required and what bigger part it must play. He appealed for a change of attitude. I want to suggest to the hon. member that he must not accept as the gospel truth everything he reads in those publications. It is very easy to criticize. For instance, in regard to the establishment of the Air Safety Council, this matter has been considered by me, but I found there was no purpose in appointing such a council, because the work such a council can do is actually being done by the Department. We have the specialists in the Department. When enquiries are made into air accidents, we appoint our experts to conduct those enquiries. We have the necessary inspection personnel and we have the safety regulations and specialists in the Department who concern themselves exclusively with the safety aspect. A safety council would serve no purpose whatsoever.

Did the C.A.A.C. recommend one?

Yes, and also certain private organizations recommended it, but after giving it consideration I found it would serve no purpose. But when the Aviation Bill is discussed, the hon. member will have an opportunity to raise the matter again and he can also discuss the functions of the C.A.A.C. I do not know whether the hon. member has read the Bill yet, but he will see that I am giving certain additional functions to the C.A.A.C. and changing the constitution of that Advisory Committee.

In regard to subsidizing feeder services, I can only inform the hon. member that my own attitude is that feeder services should not be subsidized, but I am in favour of certain concessions being made as far as income tax is concerned in regard to private operators, and I have already advised my colleague to that effect. There is a distinct possibility that aircraft companies will receive the same treatment from the Treasury as shipping companies, and that should be some encouragement to them. But feeder services should be operated by private operators at a profit. They operate smaller aircraft with fewer personnel and their overheads are much lower. Consequently they can profitably exploit an air service that South African Airways cannot do. I have informed private operators that I am quite prepared to withdraw certain intermediate services being operated by South African Airways and allow them to operate them if they can render satisfactory service. I have in mind, e.g., the service between Cape Town, Oudtshoorn, George, Grahamstown and Queenstown. If private operators are prepared to operate that service, I am quite prepared to withdraw, but they have to do it without subsidy, and they should be able to do it without subsidy because their costs are much lower and their overheads less than that of South African Airways. So there are no restrictions of any kind. In fact, my policy is to encourage private air transport in South Africa and it is for private operators to make use of this opportunity. There is no question of planning ahead. You cannot plan ahead for that type of thing. The opportunity is there and they must avail themselves of it.

The last matter is in regard to weather forecasting. I am prepared to agree that forecasting in Britain may be more accurate than in South Africa, but there is a good reason for it. Britain has all the information from the Continent available to it, from the weather stations there. We have to rely on our own resources to a large extent. That is why it is possible that their forecasts may be more accurate than ours.

You just have to forecast rain there and you will be right.

The Meteorological Office endeavours to keep abreast with all the most modern developments and they are continually introducing new equipment. They are in contact with all meteorological organizations throughout the world, even with Russia and the Antartic, and they are increasing their activities. The Meteorological Department is to a large extent dependent on information they receive from different sources and that information might not always be accurate, and consequently the forecasts might not be accurate. But these weather stations are continually being extended. The weather stations have been increased by four during the last year. There is a continual and gradual expansion. If hon. members would read the annual report of the Department of Transport, on page 2, they would see what the activities of the Meteorological Department actually are and what invaluable services they render to South Africa. There is also provision on the Estimates this year for the purchase of additional equipment for the Weather Bureau. There is provision, e.g., for the supply and replacement of equipment for 23 weather offices, 300 climatological stations and 3,800 rainfall stations. It gives a list of the equipment. There is also provision for the purchase of theodolites, dual purpose storm analysers, automatic radar sets, thermometers, etc. There is evidence that some manufacturers are manufacturing dual purpose radar sets, which in addition to storm warning are capable of upper wind determination. The advantages of dual purpose radar sets are obvious, particularly when it is considered that the range, and therewith the height, at which winds may be determined with the modern equipment is much greater than with the somewhat antiquated G.L.3 sets which were in any case not primarily designed for meteorological application. The dual purpose sets are of course more expensive, but the purchase price is still considerably less than that of two separate sets which are capable of performing only one of the two functions I mentioned. New equipment is continually being purchased and the activities extended, and we are in touch with all similar organizations in the rest of the world and we get all the information we possibly can. Some of our staff are overseas at present studying predictions or forecasts. When they come back then in collaboration with the W.N.N.A. we will make use of their radio brain, as they call it, and that will also assist us. Every effort is being made to make forecasts more accurate. In regard to Tristan da Cunha, if the volcano dies down we will probably re-establish a station there. We are also sending the R.S.A. to Bouvet Island to see whether it is possible to establish a weather station there, and we also have Gough Island. So we are doing everything in our power to improve ourselves and especially to inform the farmer when he can expect rain. There is only one thing the office will never be able to do, and that is to make rain when there is a drought.

Vote put and agreed to.

We have no amendments to move, but I want to ask the Minister one question. We understand that the definition of “premises” could be confused with the word “premises” used in Clause 11 (3). The Minister undertook to go into the matter to see what could be done to clear up the matter. Could the hon. the Minister tell us what his decision is?

I went into the matter with the law advisers, and they tell me that this definition is in order.

I wish to move the following amendment to Clause 1—

This is in terms of the undertaking I gave.

Agreed to.

Clause, as amended, put and agreed to.

On Clause 11,

I move as an amendment—

Agreed to.

Clause, as amended, put and agreed to.

Remaining Clauses and Title of the Bill put and agreed to.