LETTERS BY AIR MAIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18664, 21 March 1924, Page 11

LETTERS BY AIR MAIL.

SERVICES FROM BRITAIN.

PAST YEAR'S OPERATIONS.

The British > Postmaster-General communicates the following particulars of ail mail traffic during 1923> ;

The air letter traffic on the LondonParis service remains small, the numbei of letters sent having been about 23,700 as against about 28,600 in 1922. On the other hand, the air letter "traffic to and from Cologne has grown rapidly, from about 4001b during the first Quarter of 1923 to over v 40001b 4 during the third quarter. ;'•.••,:..-This* tenfold growth v. is largely to be attributed to the partial . dislocation of - the ordinary mail; service with Cologne, caused by present conditions on the Rhine. .' " The total weight of the letter mails ; to and from Cologne throughout the year was nearly 10,0001b," representing som« | 142,000 letters. During the latter pari! j of the year the weight of the inward air mail i was over four times that of tho outward. Air mail letters to Holland increased from about 9600 for eight and a-half months of 1922 to about 22,000 in 1923, an increase at the rate of about 62 per cent. The weight of : parcels sent to Paris during 1923 by aeroplane amounted to about 23.7001b ('ten ,and a-half '. tons), •■ as against about? 18,7001b in 1922. The air parcel traffic to Holland increased substantially during 1923, and amounted foe the whole year to about 11,9001b, as' against about 52001b during seven months of 1922.

About 315,000 letters in all are estimated to have been carried by the CairoBagdad air mail in 1923, as against about 175,000 in Is32—an increase of 80 per cent. . . "

The only non-British air mail service of which appreciable use is made by. tb<i public in England is that from Toulouse to Casablanca, Morocco, for which about 17,000 letters were posted in 1923—an increase of about 85 per cent, over the number (9200) posted in 1922. ;