AIR MAIL SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 33, 2 November 1933, Page 10

AIR MAIL SERVICE

Down to Sixteen Days SYDNEY TO LONDON Greater Saving Expected ’ The fact that the air mail service between Sydney and London, to which the New Zealand Government has agreed to contribute £5OOO, may take only 16 days, instead of IS days as previously announced, was mentioned by the Postmaster-General, Hon. Adam Hamilton, in an interview last evening. He also said that published statements that correspondence forwarded to England by a Matson steamer and flown across America might reach London in 21 days if a quick connection with an Atlantic l steamer were made were correct. The air route across America was little used, however, for New Zealand correspondence, and those who desired to mifke use of a Matson boat appeared to forget that it was very heavily subsidised by the American Government to compete with British The departmental estimate of IS davs from Sydney to London, said the Minister, was arrived at from the original cablegram' of inquiry as to whether New Zealand would contribute, which was dispatched frotn the Secretary of State for Dominion affairs on August 17, 1932. This stated that the saving in transit time was expected to be about 14 days, and as the average transit time from Sydney to London via Suez was 32 days the IS days was accepted as a safe period to estimate on. In a cablegram received from Melbourne in July, 1932, 15i davs was ment4oned as the flying time from Sydney to London, while Sir Edwin Harding, in a letter dated October 17, 1932, mentioned from 14 to 16. days, “Probably, therefore," added Mr. Hamilton, “wo could regard the flying time from Sydney to London at the commencement of the service as likely to be 16 days, or two days less than t<lie time previously announced. Assuming . that the connections will be good, we can expect a three-day trip across the Tasman and thus a 19-day mail service to London. Any suggestion that we should represent the need for a faster air service between England and Australia might readily bring t>lie rejoinder that usually the-person whp pa,ys least makes the most noise. Apparently the relative smallness of our contribution toward the service is not realised.” .