OCEAN MAILS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 125, 29 May 1922, Page 4

OCEAN MAILS.

REPLY TO CRITICISM. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. In reply to criticisms the Postal Department explains that the mail contract between New Zealand and the Pacific Coast of America provides for 24 dispatches either way, but New Zealand forwards letter mails by every fast direct steamer due to arrive in London before the service via San Francisco or Vancouver. The dispatch of these mails is announced to the public as soon as the final time of departure of a direct steamer is known, but the dispatch of steamers is dependent on completion of their loading, and very often it is not poesible to give more than two days' notice of the dispatch of a mail which will arrive in London before one dispatched via San Francisco or Vancouver. There is special provision for dispatching invoices by a boat carrying goorls. and this has been represented by the post office to those concerned time and again. Fast mail-carrying steamers are rarely fully loaded at the present time, and it is therefore hardly reasonable to suggest that more ships should be dispatched when there is uot enough for, ships ... . ""**if>a' TOR. .