EMPIRE AIR MAIL SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 115, 8 February 1935, Page 10

EMPIRE AIR MAIL SERVICE

Conference in Sydney i NEW ZEALAND DELEGATES LEAVE TO-DAY Following on the New Zealand Government’s decision to take part in an Empire postal scheme for the establishment of a cheap air-mail service between London and New Zealand via Australia, a delegation will leave Wellington by the Union liner Monowai today for Sydney, there to discuss the project with British and Australian delegates. The Dominion’s representatives will be the Hon. Adam Hamilton, Postmaster-General, and Mr. George McNamara, Director-General of the Post Office. They will be accompanied by the Minister’s private secretary, Mr. F. M. Sherwood. It is expected that the delegation will return to New Zealand within a month. The Postmaster-General informed a representative of “The Dominion” yesterday that, though many communications had been received both from the British Government and the Australian authorities on the subject, the full details of the scheme had not yet been received. The proposal would be discussed thoroughly in Sydney,' where the policy of the New Zealand Government would be submitted in detail. As already announced, the main aim generally was to establish within two years a fast and cheap air-mall service between the countries concerned. The question, of cost could not be discussed in detail until the British proposal had been explained fully at Sydney by the delegates who were flying to Australia. The aim was to provide a service between London and New Zealand by way of Australia, the postal rate being IJd. per* half ounce, but. that charge was purely tentative. Australia at present charged 2d. for ordinary letter postage, while the New Zealand rate was only a penny. So far, nothing definite had been proposed about establishing a trans-Tasman air-mail service. The present service by air was between London and Sydney, so that letters for and from New Zealand had to be transported across the Tasman at poundage rates. All these conditions would have to be considered, as they involved the question of expenditure. The Government had decided to co-operate with the British and Australian authorities in the development of the scheme, and there was no reason to doubt, that a satisfactory arrangement would be effected at the conference in Sydney. As already published in “The Dominion,” experts are confident that the present scheduled time of 14 days for airmail services between England and Sydney will be reduced soon to 10 days and ultimately to seven and a half days. Time-table Resumed Information\has been received from Australia that the original time-table for the Australia-Singapore-England air-mail service has now been resumed. New Zealand mails despatched by trans-Tasman steamers on Fridays will now again connect with the air service at Sydney on Tuesdays, and, in the reverse direction, the air-mail arriving at Sydney on Fridays will connect with New Zealand steamers sailing on that day.