was that air services were controlled by the Commonwealth government, so the state could not intervene. On 17 February 1936 Ansett Airways Pty Ltd inaugurated its first service, from Hamilton to Melbourne using a diminutive six-seater Fokker F.XI Universal. The flights operated daily each way, Monday to Friday. The service was a modest success and the Fokker was joined by an Airspeed A.6 Envoy. To help boost his funds, he entered, but failed to win, the Brisbane to Adelaide air race in 1936, losing to C. D. Pratt overall, and to Mr & Mrs J. W. F Collins in the speed section (also being beaten by Ivy May Pearce, one of a number of female competitors). On weekends he took the Universal on barnstorming tours of Victoria giving joyflights to paying customers. To fund its expansion, he listed the company on the Melbourne Stock Exchange on 14 April 1937, offering 250 000 shares at £1 ($2) each. A base, including a flying school, was established in a hangar at Melbourne's Essendon Airport. He found selling the shares hard going. A number of aircraft crashes, notably the loss of Airlines of Australia's Stinson in southern Queensland in 1937, had dampened public enthusiasm for airline investments. Underwriters refused to handle the float so he had to find investors himself. It was a difficult time but he eventually interested enough wealthy individuals in the western district. Needing new aircraft, he ordered three Lockheed L.10A Electras. Under the Empire Preference Scheme, aircraft from Britain could be imported duty-free; Aircraft from anywhere else paid import duties. Ansett Airways Limited had posted a £30 000 ($60 000) loss in its first year and its shares had more than halved in value. His bankers refused to advance the money to pay Lockheed £50 000 ($100 000) for the Electras which were being held in bond awaiting payment of £14 000 ($28 000) in duty. His first priority was to get the aircraft released, so he lobbied T W White, Minister for Customs in the Lyons government. He argued there was no British equivalent aircraft available and that British airlines had ordered them for their own fleets. White accepted the argument and the duty was waived. To pay Lockheed, he went back to the banks who agreed to finance the purchase providing his wealthy grazier investors guaranteed the loan. The investors backed him, but at the price of