LIKELY CHRISTMAS AIR MAIL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 11 September 1934, Page 2

LIKELY CHRISTMAS AIR MAIL

NEW ZEALAND TO ENLAND APPLICATIONS FOR-TASMAN : FLIGHT Though no official announcement will be made , for some, time, it is probable that Christmas'letters from England to New Zealand and from New Zealand to- England will travel all tiie way by air tills year. Tins will be the longest air mail connection in the world. The first machines on the Imperial Airways service between England and Australia will leave Brisbane and Croydon on sth December and Bth December, respectively.. The flight between the two countries will take approximately a fortnight, so that letters from England could be brought from Brisbane to .New Zealand by air for Christmas.;with two or three,, days to spare. Two concerns are known to intend appoaching the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department with offers to make the Tasman flight, presumably under the same financial arrangements as those made with Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Mr C. T. P. Ulm, when they have taken mails between New - Zealand and Australia recently. It is, indeed, reported that one. airman has already, approached the Post Office authorities. ...

It is considered almost certain, in view of the inauguration of the air mail between England and Australia, that. the New r Zealand Post Office will agree to an air connection with it. It is also thought possible that New Zealand will issue _ a special stamp to mark the occasion. That was done—not without profit to the Post Office and,, incidentally to philatelists —on one previous occasion, when Mr Ulm carried the, first official air mail from the Dominion to Australia.

In 1931, Australian National Air-, ways took Christmas mail from Australia to England-p-the Southern Sun, flown by Mr G. U. Allen, crashed at Alor Star, and Sir Charles KingsfordSmith set out with the Southern Star and took the mail on—but that, was i’ptrrely art experimental flight. •• The flights this year will he the first-of the regular service over the longest air-line in the world. In 1931, too, Christmas air mails were carried throughout New Zealand by air, and it is possible that aeroplanes will be used to take mail to the point of departure of the Tasman air mail machine, arid to distribute’the English letters when they’'arfive.