MAIL SERVICE TO ENGLAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 30 December 1925, Page 4

MAIL SERVICE TO ENGLAND.

REPLY TO DR. THACKER’S ALLEGATIONS. (by TELEGRAPH —PBESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 29. On his return from England and America a few days ago Dr. Thacker criticised the mail facilities, stating that mails via Vancouver took 35 to 40 days to reach London, whereas a passenger, if the -ship were speeded up, could reach London in 27 days. Mr, Markman, secretary of the Post Office, said to-day that Dr. Thacker’s statement was not according to the facts. He produced records to show that the average time the mails took to London since last January was 29 days via San Francisco, and via Vancouver 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 and- the shortest 27. There was no value in Dr. Thacker’s suggestion to use the air mail between San Francisco and New 'York, as, although the transcontinental passage took only 36 hours by air, the mails would be delayed at New York waiting for the fast mail steamer, which the mails now regularly caught the day after their arrival in "New York. The present time-table had been all worked out, and it would be absurd to expect the Cunard line to arrange the movements of their ships to suit the convenience of the New Zealand mails.