Empire Airmail Scheme

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 184, 6 August 1938, Page 6

Empire Airmail Scheme

ENGLAND IN A FORTNIGHT Per Press Association. WELLINGTON; Aug. 5. The most notable dc -elopment in connection with the overseas mail communications of the Dominion commenced last night with the despatch by the lt Wanganella” from Wellington of approximately 122,000 letters weighing 3056 lbs which, under the new Empire airmail scheme will be carried by air via Sydney and Singapore to England in a fortnight, instead of the usual 28 to 30 days of the surface transport mails which have served New Zealand for many decades. This airmail will reach London on the same date as a mail despatched by the fastest surface transport route eleven days earlier. The prospect of having to wait at ! least two months for an English reply | tc a New Zealand letter has ended and : this remarkable speeding up of the j mails is being provided .by a nominal I increase in postage charges, penny I postage having been superseded by a I charge of three halfpence for the half ounce letter. Though the charge had been heralded by months of discussion iL the press and was finally described i-i detail through every medium of publicity, the post office discovered to its intense surprise that 20 per cent, of the letters posted for the first despatch were short paid. Every household in the Dominion was furnished with information regarding the new mail arrangements, but the habits of years were evidently not to be changed by a publicity campaign of a few weeks. Even business firms were offender*. Another feature of the new mail arrangements has been the disappearance of the penny postage to the United States, the international rate of per ounce now prevailing. This, too, has been overlooked by large numbers of correspondents who are throwing on the recipients of their letters tho obligation of paying double th© deficiency. To mark the distinctive occasion, yesterday's mail which went forward in the blue bags which have superseded the large canvas bags used for surface transit, included a special satchel of black leather embossed with the New Zealand emblem of the silver fern and an inscription referring to the despatch of tho first mail under the Empire scheme.

Tho satchel contained letters from His Excellency the Governor-General I (Viscount Galway) to His Majesty the King; from the Prime Minister of New Zealand (Mr. M. J. Savage) to the Prime Minister of Britain; from the Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones) to Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air; from the Postmaster-General (Hon. F. Jones) to Major G. C. Tryon (Postmaster-General of Britain); from the Prime Minister to the New Zealand High Commissioner in London, and from the Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department to the Director-General of the British Post Office.

Also connecting with the Empire air service despatch from Sydney on August 9th, will bo Friday's mail forwarded from Auckland by the “ Mariposa." Even under the handicap of the air mail surcharge of Is 6d per half ounco which prevailed until a few days ago, the great advantage in speeding-up mail communications by using the Empire air route was being I increasingly appreciated. When the service commenced in 1935 tho average monthly despatches from New Zealand were 9817 letters; in 1936 this average rose to 17,470, with a total for the year of 209,647. Last year showed a farther big advance to the average monthly total of 27,039, the year's business amounting to 324,470 letters. This year there was a faster expansion of the use of the service on tho high surcharge basis, tho monthly average rising to 31,273. Although tho period did not include any rush time for correspondence such as is experienced early in December, it is anticipated that the monthly despatches will exceeded 180,000 letters, but the postage to Empire countries and Egypt instead of being Is 6d will te three-halfpence per half ounce. AUSTR ALIA-ENGL AND AIR-MALL TERMINAL ROSE BAY AIRPORT OFFICIALLY OPENED SYDNEY, Aug. 5. The acting-Governor-General of Australia, Lord Huntingfield, yesterday officially opened the Rose Bay airport as tho terminal of the three-weekly airmail service between Australia and England. The Minister of Defence, Mr. H* V. Thorby, the New South Wales State Premier, Mr. B. S. B. Stevens, and the Postmaster-General were among those present. The occasion was marked by the simultaneous departure of the flyingboat Camilla with a special mail-bag containing letters for the King, the British Prime Minister and the British Postmaster-General. The air-mail which left Southampton on July 28 is bringing 10891bs. for New Zealand. That which left on July 30 is bringing 5591b5., and that which left on July 31 4251b5. for New Zealand.