TASMAN AIR MAIL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 9

TASMAN AIR MAIL

Distribution in N.Z. USE OF AIR FORCE PLANES \ By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 6. The enterprise of Sir Charles Kings-ford-Smith and Mr C. T. P. Ulm in pioneering the carriage of mails in the Southern Cross and the Faith in Australia between Australia and New Z«eafand will receive a further fillip by the arrangements now completed for the distribution of the air mail on arrival in New Plymouth to some of the principal centres of the Dominion by the Air Force machines of the Defence Department. The project of the Defence Department helping the Post and Telegraph Department in delivering quickly is eagerly looked forward to.

The air mail in both islands has been receiving the consideration of the Minister of Defence, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, for aome time, and the Minister stated thia evening that it had now been found possible for the Air Force branch of the Defence Department to link up in the enterprise of demonstrating the possibilities of air mails. “The use of the service aeroplanes,” said the Minister, “has been authorised to distribute the trans-Tasman air mails due to arrive at New Plymouth on Wednesday by the Faith in Australia. The planes will be used for the transport of the mails from New Plymouth to Auckland, Wellington and possibly Christchurch. Should the South Island portion of the mail be small and the time of arrival permit, the machine from Wigram Aerodrome will carry it on its homeward jour nev

Mr Cobbe added that quite apart from the interest philatelists took in air mail stamps, it was evident from the large number of letters carried in the initial trips of the Faith in Australia and Southern Cross, that there were many relatives and friends residing in the two countries. They would no doubt appreciate the expedition of the delivery of mails by the arrangement it had now been found practicable to make.