PARCELS BY AIR MAIL

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21806, 11 June 1936, Page 9

PARCELS BY AIR MAIL

LITTLE PUBLIC SUPPORT CANTERBURY IDEA REGARDED. AS IMPRACTICABLE The recent suggestion of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce that the air-mail service might be saved by the carriage of oysters between Bluff and Auckland is regarded offieialy as not practicable, and the restricted patronage of the parcels service by air has given rise to the belief that the air services can at present be maintained only by Government subsidy. One reason given for the impracticability of the proposal of the Chamber of Commerce is that the air-mail parcels post is limited to parcels up to 281 b in weight, and sacks of oysters average from, 1681 b to 1801 b, according to the condition of the oysters; so that even if they were shipped as ordinary freight, and not by parcels post. a consignment of oysters would be too heavy for the aeroplanes now engaged in New Zealand services. An indication of the use made by the public of the air-mail parcels service is given in' detals of business done in the week ended May 31, supplied by the Post and Telegraph/Department at Wellington. There were dispatched during that week 35 parcels of 31b weight or less, 11 parcels between 31b and 71b in weight and five parcels between 71b and 141 b. As the rates for parcels are up to 31b 2s, 71b 3s 6d, 141 b ss, 211 b Bs, and 281 b 10s, it will be realised that the amount of revenue earned in the aerial parcels post in the last week of May was small. The total amount was £6 13s 6d. Only rarely, it was said, did parcels require urgent dispatch. For ordinary purposes the .rail, steamer, and motor services were so good throughout the country that they sufficed. Moreover*, in New Zealand the public was given better service than in most other countries by the closing of the mails nearer to the time of _ dispatch than elsewhere. It was quite common in sofne countries for the parcels post mails to close a full two hours before the time of dispatch, but m New Zealand cities that time was reduced to one hour, and in some country post offices to 20 minutes. One possible avenue of development of the aerial parcels service was suggested—in the carriage of flowers. In June the plentiful supply of Iceland poppies and early narcissi north of Auckland, as far as Whangarei, found a good market in Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. They could be well packed, and did not weigh a great deal.