AIR-MAIL GROWTH

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22347, 10 March 1938, Page 7

AIR-MAIL GROWTH

OVERSEAS EXPANSION

INLAND BUSINESS DOUBLED

The Post Office is now using for letter transport by air in New Zealand a daily route mileage of 3813, and the improved facilities provided for a flat-rate surcharge of a penny an ounce a letter have encouraged the development of the traffic at a satisfactory rate bearing a close approximation to the increasingly wide range served by the aeroplane. Route mileage represents the distance actually covered by aeroplanes carrying mails. For instance, from Palmerston North to Dunedin is 495 miles, and the tit versing of this route once in each direction every day involves a route mileagp of 990. while the six trips from Wellington to Blenheim (45 miles) add 270 to the daily total. In February last year the air services were covering 2000 miles daily, and the number of letters carried weekly was about 22,000. To-day the weekly total is more than double that amount.

For the week ended December 26, the air mails shared in the Chirstmas postal activity, the weekly postings reaching 46.887. There was a decline in the other holiday weeks, but the position soon improved, and the weekly averages are now more than double those of the corresponding periods of last year, recent figures being as follows:

Week ended Letters carried January 2 .. .. 27,551 January 9 .. .. 29.879 January 16 .. .. 40,196 January 23 .. .. 40,610 January 30 .. .. 39.276 February 6 .. ' . - 39,143 February 13 .. .. 42.046 February 20 .. .. 41.165

The daily air-mail services in operation comprise: Wellington-Palmerston North-New Plymouth-Auckland; Wellington - Palmerston North - Auckland; Palmerston North - Napier - Gisborne; Palmerston North-Christchurch-Dun-edin; and the Cook Strait services to Blenheim and Nelson. The thriceweekly Nelson - Greymouth - Hokitika and the weekly Hokitika-Okura Services represent a route mileage of 57U, bringing the total inland air-mail route mileages to 4383. Overseas Air-Mails Overseas air-mails dispatched from the Dominion are also becoming substantial in volume, the growth during the last three years being at the rate of more than 70 per cent, annually. Letters dispatched by the Sydney-Singapore-London air service during the) last three years were as follows: 1935. 1936. 1937. 117,809 209,647 324,470 A feature of this modern phase of postal business is the increasing useoi the air-mail in Christmas traffic. The December business in 1935 was a modest total of 11,523 letters, but this total rose to 33,319 in the following December, while last December it reached 38,860. Coming down to the normal volume, January's figure of 28,660 compared very favourably with the 17,687 letters handled in January last year.