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Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 35, 5 November 1928, Page 14

Probably the first letters sent to New Zealand from Amsterdam by air mail via Batavia (Java) were received recently by a Wellington resident, Mr. A. Van Rooijen, from his people in Holland. By the fast steaiAers it takes twenty-four days for letters tq reach Batavia from Amsterdam, but those sent to Mr. A’an Rooijen arrived in Weltevreden/near Batavia, eleven days after they were posted in Amsterdam--a’ difference of thirteen "days. From Batavia they were dispatched to New Zealand via Australia. On the letters is a post office stamp “Per Luchtpost” (in Dutch) and “Par Avion” (in French), which indicates that they are to be forwarded by ah’ mail. As is only to be expected, one has to pay for tliis very much more speedy ti-ans-mission of mail matter. It cost Mr. Van Rooijen’s relatives 2s. Gd. extra on each of the two letters sent to him by air mail, and eighteenpence extra on a postcard. The interest alone on the debts owned by forty Governments to the United States represents the wages of 5,000.000 workers. There are now, on an average, six times as many divorce eases brought before the British'Courts as there were in pre-war