CLIPPER’S MAIL

Grey River Argus, 5 February 1941, Page 7

CLIPPER’S MAIL

LIFE AT AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, February 3. _ Although the closing time for air mail for San Francisco by the Pan American Airways California Clipper was announced by the Chief Post Office on Saturday to be 10 o cl ° cl s this morning, the Clipper had left Auckland and had already covered two hours of the journey to Noumea by that time. Unfavourable weather on the south-bound trip put the Clipper three days behind schedule, and 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 until 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 until to-morrow morning, were informed that it was too late then to inform the public of the necessary change in the closing time. To cope more quickly with the mail, extra hands were employed in the post office on Sunday. All mail posted before 5 p.m. 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.