EMPIRE AIR MAIL

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 July 1938, Page 5

EMPIRE AIR MAIL

COST TO DOMINION. MINISTBR ANTICIPATES LARGE DEFICIT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. The cost to New Zealand for the conveyance of mails on the Empire Air Service from Australia to England ,aml on the branch to South Africa will be £54.000 per annum (New Zealand currency), and when tire transTasman service is operating, the cost will bo increased to approximately £IOO,OOO per annum.

This announcement was made to-day by Ihe Postmaster-General (Tlon. P. Jones), who sain the expenditure would not be recovered from increased revenue or from savings in the cost of for-warding mails by sea. On the present estimates and allowing for- more revenue and for savings on surface transport, it was anticipated the expenditure would exceed the. revenue by £40,000. Under the new arrangement, said the Minister, the public will be able to send to England by air 12 letters for Is 6d, as against only one for Is 6d under the existing air-mail arrangement. And not only that, but the transit time will be progressively reduced until, with the spanning of the Tasman by air, letters will reach England in not more than 10 days after leaving New Zealand, or in one-third of the time taken at present by the ordinary means. There will be an immediate improvement in respect of the transit time bed ween New Zealand and Great Britain and Ireland, South Africa. India and Malaya, to name the more important British countries on the route. In respect to Canada, there will be considerable advantage- in using the air service, while, of course, immediately the Tasman is spanned by air, the service to Australia will bo almost equal to the cable service.