NEW MAIL RATES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 12, 14 July 1938, Page 11

NEW MAIL RATES

HALF-OUNCE UNIT

SERVICE MUCH FASTER

A reduction from Is 6d to Hd per half-ounce is to be made in air-mail postage to the United Kingdom from New Zealand. The new rate of l£d per half-ounce is to be introduced on July 26 (superseding the old Id rate), and the Empire air service will then provide the normal means of forwarding all letters posted in New Zealand for. the Home countries.

The new Empire service will be inaugurated from Australia with the departure of the flying-boat from Sydney on August 9 (due London August 19), and the last New Zealand mails to connect with the initial flight under the new scheme will be those dispatched from Wellington on August 4 and Auckland on August 5. If important letters are intended to reach England before August 19, it will be necessary to pay the special charge of Is 6d for each half-ounce. But there will be no advantage after the departure of the Awatea from Auckland on August 1 in paying more than l£d each hallounce for letters addressed to the United Kingdom and many other British countries.

Ever since the eighties, the thirtyday transit between New Zealand and London has been regarded as a good mail dispatch. Then the Imperial air service from England to Singapore and Sydney came into being, and it was possible to bring down the average time to eighteen days, and sometimes to seventeen days. More recently, owing to the Sydney-London air route being covered twice weekly in each direction, it has been possible to make quicker connections between the steamer across the Tasman and the aeroplane, in Australia, with the result that the average time in transit has been reduced to fifteen days, with a minimum of thirteen.

To enjoy the advantage of this acceleration, letters have had to bear; the charge of Is 6d per half-ounce. Now the same weight is to be carried by. air. for IJd, and the letters will reach their'destination in less than half the time taken by surface transport. As all first-class correspondence from New Zealand to Empire countries will go from Australia by air, there will be no need to use the blue air-mail label. POINTS ABOUT THE CHANGE. The overseas mail arrangements of the Post Office will have to be reorganised owing to the change to air transit for first-class correspondence. Most of the innovations are within the Post Office, but members of the public will also have to accustom themselves to some changes, the most important being the new rate of postage. Instead of Id per ounce they will now pay l£d per half-ounce for letters addressed to Empire countries. For this they will not only get the advantage of delivery in England in about half the time taken by the old system of transport, but there will also be more frequent dispatches overseas. The Empire air service is soon to be developed into one of three trips weekly between England and Australia, so that the New Zealand letters carried across the Tasman by sea v JU usually not have to wait more than a few hours before i their journey is continued fry air.

The principal countries participating in the Empire air service are Great Britain and Ireland, South Africa, Canada, India, " Ceylon, Malaya, and Australia. The term "Empire countries" is officially interpreted to cover British Protectorate and mandate countries, and also Egypt, which is an important pivotal point on the^Empire air-mail routes. Letters to Australia, at present carried for, Id, will be included in the lid per half-ounce rate when air transit is operating over the Tasman. Letters for Canada will be forwarded by air via London, and thence by sea across the Atlantic, or by sea direct, whichever is the quicker dispatch. THE HALF-OUNCE WEIGHT. In air transport, weight becomes an important factor, therefore the new half-ounce unit for the minimum postage is a point calling for more care than in the days of the one-ounce minimum. Each additional half-ounce under the new system must be prepaid at the rate of ljd. Five sheets of ordinary writing paper enclosed in a medium- envelope should not weigh more than half an ounce, though the use of heavy stationery of the superior type would limit the number of the sheets coming within the half-ounce. Post Office experience is that probably not more than 20 per cent, of the letters handled under the present system: exceed half an ounce in weight. !

The blue air-mail label is not needed on correspondence for Empire countries served on the Empire routes, but it is still required where air-mail routes are to be utilised in foreign countries, or where air dispatch is required in British countries not served, or not fully served on the Empire routes. The blue label should also be used for the New Zealand internal air mail services, in respect to which the existing Id per ounce surcharge is retained. ' ; POSTAGE TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Except for the temporary rate of Id per ounce to Australia (to be changed to ljd per half-ounce when the Tasman air service commences) overseas postage is now simplified, because there are only two rates. Correspondence for Empire countries will bear the l£d rate (each half-ounce), while all correspondence to foreign countries will be subject to the Postal Union charge of 2Jd for the first ounce, and l£d for each succeeding ounce. New Zealanders have been accustomed to the 2£d rate in respect to most of these countries, but it will be a notable change so far as the United States of America is concerned, because in the past Id postage from New Zealand has prevailed to that point. However* the United States Administration has always charged the Postal Union rate of 5 cents (the equivalent of 2|d) for correspondence addressed to the Dominion.

Having regard to the volume of overr seas mails handled by New Zealand, the principal additional countries to which the international rate now applies are U.S.A. and Hawaii, Argentine Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Portugal, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. This class of correspondence will continue to be forwarded to its destination by surface transport, although the payment of special air-mail rates will provide accelerated dispatch'where air services are available. Portions of the Empire routes.can thus be used, and there is a network of air services in the United States and Europe enabling quicker delivery to be given when the mail arrives in the country of destination.