HISTORIC OCCASION

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 116, 12 November 1931, Page 15

HISTORIC OCCASION

AIR MAIL SERVICE

To-day was an. historic occasion at I Kongo tai —Wellington's airport, since it marked the first arrival from the South Island of His Majesty's air mail. Missives may .have been carried across tho Straits before, but this was ithe first occasion.' on which a definitely organised air mail service, which included the whole length of both islands in the itinerary, has used Wellington as a port of call. It is also the first occasion on which a flight from Invercargill to Auckland has been attempted in one day. To-day's flight was a special one, organised by tho Air League in co-oper-ation with the Post and Telegraph Department, intended amongst other things to stimulate public interest in aviation. It will also enable letters to connect with the special Australia-England air mail, with which the Ulimaroa from Auckland will connect.

Captain M'jGregor, piloting a Spartan . machine, left Invercargill at 3.51 a.m. to-day with the mail, no passengers being allowed, since the flight was strictly a mail service one. Further mail was taken aboard at Dunedin, and Christchurch was reached at 8 a.m. By the time Blenheim was left at 11.6, a.m. the number of mail bags was increased to sixteen. A landing was made a,t Rongotai at 11.55. a.m., and the mail loft again with an increased load for Palmerston North at 12.25 p.m. From thero the , 'plane goes to Auckland via New Plymouth, arriving at the end of its long flight about 8 p.m.,. Thi3 flight is not, as some, people imagine, necessarily the precursor of a daily service. It is in the nature of an experiment, and from it may develop some kind of regular air-mail service between the two Islands.

The aeroplane upon its arrival at Eongotai was greeted by the Postmas-ter-General, the Hon. A. Hamilton; and amongst interested witnesses of the event were the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop; Mr. G. M'Namara, Secretary of,the Post and Telegraph Department; Sir James Parr, president-elect of the New Zealand Air League; Major T. M. Wilkes, Director of Air Services; General Sinclair Burgess; Mr. Maurice Clark, president of the New Zealand Air League; and many others.