OVERSEA MAIL SERVICE

Feilding Star, Volume 3, Issue 553, 30 December 1925, Page 5

OVERSEA MAIL SERVICE

m> ti lack Firs oirmnsM REPLY liY Ml* MAPTvMAN (Press Association Telegram.) AVe.lliiigt.on, Dec. *29. On liis return from r.nglaml and America a lew days ago l)r. Thacker criticised the mail facilities, stating 'that mails via Vancouver took 35 ! to 40 days to reach London, whereas a passenger, if the ship was speeded up, could rear'll it in 27 dayt. Mr Mark man, secretary of the Post. Office,, said to-day that Dr Thacker’s statement was not according in the facts. He produced records; to show that the a Vertigo time the mail took to London since last January was 29 days via San Francisco and via Vancouver the average over two years was 31 days. The *ong'est tia no via V'aiwuver the average over two years was 31 days. The longest time via Vancouver this year was 33 days and the shortest 29, the longest via San Francisco was 31 days and the shortest 27 There was no value .in Dr Thacker's suggestion to use an air mail between' San Francisco and New Vork. as although the Continental-passage took only 2(> hours by air the mails ■would be delayed at New York waiting for the fast mail steamer, which tlig mails now regularly caught the day alter arrival at New York. The present time-table had been all work, ed out, and it would be absurd to expect ihe Cmiard Line to arrange the movements of their ships for the convenience of New Zealand mails.