AIR MAIL RETURNS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 207, 29 May 1936, Page 10

AIR MAIL RETURNS

Much Lower Than Estimate DECREASE LAST WEEK On the internal air mail services, which the Postmaster-General, the Hon. F. Jones, described in Auckland on Wednesday as so disappointing in result that discontinuance would probably be necessary if traffic did not soon show an improvement, 13,007 letters were carried last week, a decrease of just over 500 from the previous week. Ten weeks of operation of the service have resulted in just over 150.000 letters being sent by air, of which pro bably 25,000 were dispatched by philatelists in the first and seventh weeks. The Minister, in introducing the service, said that his officers had estimated that the number of letters which, would gain in time if carried by air was about 9.000,000 a year, or about 766,500 a month. Actually the service has carried about 60,000 a month. If allowance is made for the probable postings of philatelists, the monthly average of ordinary postings becomes about 50,000, giving 600,000 a year, fewer for a year than it was estimated should be flown in a month. The weekly totals since the introduction of the service have been:—

PROMPT DELIVERY A letter posted in Hong-Kong reached Wellington this week after being only 10 days on the journey, prompt delivery being made through a combination of air and seat services. The letter was posted in Hong-Kong on a Friday and carried by Imperial Airways, Ltd., to Penang, where it was placed aboard the machine of Quanta? Empire Airways on Sunday and taken to Sydney, via Singapore and Darwin, arriving at Sydney on the Friday after posting. There it caught the Monowai, reaching YY’ellington the following Monday.

Week. Number. Pounds. First 36,793 697 Second 12,470 124 Third 14,189 SIS Fourth 11,776 412 Fifth 10,936 3S6 Sixth 12,402 462 Seventh 15,993 548 Eighth 12.129 433 Ninth ...... 13,528 470 Tenth 13,007 465