EXTENSION OF AIR MAIL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 18, 16 October 1933, Page 8

EXTENSION OF AIR MAIL

Cabinet’s decision to contribute toward .the cost of the air mail service between London and Sydney is satisfactory from several points of view. Chief among these is the fact that New Zealand will have an interest and a voice in an Imperial enterprise for more efficient communications, in which the British, Indian and Australian Governments are joined.

Provision is already made in the mail contract for the carriage of New Zealand letters;' their delivery to and from the Australian" terminal to be made without any surcharge on the rate fixed for Australian correspondence. This rate is to be 1/3 a half-ounce between Australia and England, and 1/- on the Australian section to Singapore. Tn the meantime it is proposed that the New Zealand connection should be made by steamer. Apparently New Zealand mails would have been catered for, whether the Government had decided to contribute or not. Nevertheless the Dominion’s financial adherence should confer advantages now and in the future. New Zealand will have a stronger voice in the discussion, of time-tables so as to make the Tasman connection as close and speedy as possible. She will also be joined up with an organisation, the realisation of whose final objective—the long flight over the Tasman Sea—she will be in a better position to influence. Imperial Airways, Ltd., has already firmly established the passenger and mail route to Karachi. In conjunction with an Indian company, in which it holds a controlling interest, Imperial Airways has recently extended its service to Calcutta. By January of next year the further section to Singapore will be established. Thus the route has been consolidated by careful stages. Australia is to be responsible for the Singapore-Darwin section, and for distributive air services in the Commonwealth. Probably the New Zealand contribution will be made to assist in forging the link from Singapore south-eastward. Tenderers for the Australian contracts must be British subjects and resident in the Commonwealth, but it is already known that Imperial Airways will tender through its subsidiary, Australia Empire Airways, Ltd. Tenders will close on January 31 next and it may be supposed that the junction service with Singapore will commence shortly thereafter. It is suggested in a news item published this morning that the time saved by the new air service over existing ones will be 18 days. That seems over-optimistic, although eventually it may be possible to deliver a letter in London ten or twelve days after it is posted in New Zealand. Meanwhile it is sound policy to secure a contributory interest in an Imperial service that has recommendations of a political as well as a commercial nature.