EARLY DEPARTURE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 111, 4 February 1941, Page 8

EARLY DEPARTURE

California Clipper For San Francisco SOME MAIL NOT TAKEN (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. February 3. Though the closing time for airmail fur San Francisco by Pan-American Airways’ California Clipper wa.s announced by the Chief Post Office on Saturday to be 10 o'clock this morning, the clipper bad left Auckland and had already covered two hours of the journey to Noumea by that time. Unfavourable weather on the southbound trip put the clipper three days behind schedule, and in order to make up a day on the return trip it was decided that it should leave this morning. The departure time of the clipper was indefinite on Friday, and it was not till Sunday that the decision to start the flight this morning was made and postal officials, who had assumed that the return flight would not be started till tomorrow morning, were informed. It was too late then to inform the public of the necessary change in the closing time, and to cope more quickly with the mail extra hands were employed in the post office on Sunday. All mail posted before 5 o’clock on Sunday afternoon was loaded on to the clipper before it left. Mail posted after that hour will be forwarded on the next, flight, when the clipper will leave Auckland on February 15. Only a small amount of mail has been held over. Nearly all commercial correspondence was posted on Friday evening or Saturday. The next surface mail for San Francisco will be by the Matson liner Monterey, which will leave Auckland on Monday. Mail sent by the next clipper on February 15 will reach San Francisco about five days earlier than the surface mail. The California Clipper is expected to reach Noumea this afternoon. The Clipper carries 12 passengers. The Awarua left for Sydney. Several of her passengers included arrivals yesterday by the California Clipper. Among them was the Hon. Sir Charles Marr.