FIRST AIR MAIL

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 187, 6 May 1931, Page 11

FIRST AIR MAIL

Experimental Service

LONDON TO AUSTRALIA

Wellington Letters Arrive

Arriving in Wellington yesterday, a shoal of letters bearing the blue air mail label and the words “England-Australia Air Mail.” brought with them the realisation that aviation is obliterating distance.

Owing chiefly to the fact that this was an experimental service, over ground totally unfamiliar to the pilots, the mishap and delay at Koepang, and the shipping connections, the air mail only equalled the time via the San Francisco route, although there might have been a saving of time on the letters posted along the air route. Comparison of the times taken by the letters over the various portions of the route are interesting, for they have a varied history. Leaving England on April 4, the City of Cairo readied Delhi ten days later, having averaged 115 miles per hour over the whole of the journey to that point. Five days later, on April 19, the mail liner crashed at Koepang, Dutch East 'lndies, with only the Timor Sea.to cross. After five days’ delay Air-Commodore C. Kingsford Smith set out from Darwin in his famous Fokker, Southern Cross, arriving back with the mail next day. After a further delay of two days, the mail was brought south by an air liner belonging to Australian National Airways. Kingsford Smith’s company, the Southern Sun, arriving in Sydney on April 29. The mail waited a further two days in Sydney before the Maunganui left for New Zealand, and took a further four days to cross the Tasman Sea. In other words, the letters took only sixteen days to come from England out to Koepang. 450 miles from the Australian coast, by air, and ten days to cover the much shorter distance from Darwin to Wellington. Another point worthy of notice is that the postage from England to New Zealand was 1/4, while the rate from New Zealand for a half-ounce letter costs 2/2. Approximately 15,000 letters were brought from England by the air mail, with other consignments of mail from various places eh route. Mail by steamer, which arrived by the Monowai on Mondav, closed at London on April 2, while the' air mail letters were received on the following day. Since the Australian steamer arrived here a day after the Monowai, the times for both forms of transport were 31 days. Looking at the fact that the mail closed a day later, and allowed letters posted on that ,day to leave, instead of having to wait for the next mail, the saving was considerable. . • Should Imperial Airways inaugurate a regular service between Australia and England, a decision which will depend upon the results of the two return experimental services' now being conducted, the service will be considerably speeded up, even on the schedule time for the experimental journeys. Passengers will eventually be carried, as well as mails, and it may be anticipated that the postal rates will be reduced.