AERIAL MAIL SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20744, 11 December 1930, Page 14

AERIAL MAIL SERVICE.

The receipt of tenders for an aerial mail service linking Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin brings within sight an enterprise of considerable importance. Commercial aviation has been slow to take wing in the Dominion, but this tardiness has allowed advantage to be taken of experimental developments elsewhere. In general, the details of the contract follow precedent, save in the omission of a direct subsidy; the Government's taking of a percentage to defray the cost of transporting the mail in bulk between the airports and the post offices is in accordance with the method adopted in Britain. While only the four chief cities are to be given, apparently, the benefits of the service at first, the time should not be far distant when some towns on the route can be included with advantage to the scheme. Already some of them have landing facilities, and their sharing of the service might very well be arranged at once. The others should be stimulated by the present arrangement to provide these facilities. They are a determining factor in the rapidity with which aerial services develop. In Britain, while services to and from the Continent have been in operation for some years, only recently has there been established an internal service, and this development perforce waited on the provision of landing grounds. To this need there ought to be given early attention in the populous places of this country.