MAILS BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 95, 19 October 1933, Page 11

MAILS BY AIR

LONDON TO SYDNEY

DOMINION'S INTEREST

Eeferenco is made by the PostmasterGeneral (the Hon. A, Hamilton), in his report presented to Parliament yesterday, to the proposed extension to Australia of the United Kingdom-India air mail service and the effect of tho extension on New Zealand. "It was announced some months ago that a proposal was afoot to extend to Australia the weekly air mail service at present operating between England and India," said the Minister. '' The proposal seems now to have assumed definite shape, it having been announced that it is hoped in January to extend the service from Karachi, the existing terminal, by way of Calcutta and Rangoon to Singapore. From Singapore extension will later be made to Australia, a section of the service which will be controlled by the Australian Government. "Until the. service is extended to Australia it will offer little advantage to New Zealand. A Sydney-London service would, however, be of material advantage, particularly in weeks when there is no dispatch of mails from New Zealand to, the United Kingdom- via Korth America. On the information available it is estimated that the transit time London-Sydney on the proposed extended air service will be eighteen days, making a transit time LondonNew Zealand of twenty-one or1 twentytwo days, if connection were made at Sydney on the sailing day with the New Zealand weekly steamer. This transit time compares with an average transit time of thirty days for New Zealand mails forwarded by land and sea to Great Britain via North America. In the direction Sydney-London it is estimated, on the assumption that the air mail would make departure for London from Sydney on the arrival of the New Zealand steamer, that the acceleration in the time of delivery of correspondence to Great Britain and Europe would vary from four days in some cases to as much as twenty days in others. "It is understood that the charge for letters exchanged between Great Britain and Australia on the air service will be Is 3d per half-ounce (air mail fee and postage- combined), and that the same rate will apply to New Zealand correspondence. "Some time is likely to elapse before the extension of the service from Singapore to Australia. In the meantime, the Department is keeping closely in touch with developments."