AIR MAIL ARRIVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21993, 27 December 1934, Page 8

AIR MAIL ARRIVES

When the post is delivered this morning letters by the first Empire air mail will be in the hands of Auckland recipients. Though a mishap to an aeroplane in Australia caused delay, and the expected connection with the steamer Monowai was missed, the carriage of the mail still took no more than 18 days. There has been a good, deal of discussion about the schedule to which this service is being run in the beginning. The wonderful feats of pilots and machines in the Melbourne air race was seized upon for comparison with the time-table planned for the England-Australia run, which has now been inaugurated. Let these arguments be continued. It is well for high standards to be advocated and healthy ambitions encouraged. But, meantime, some - thought can perhaps be spared for the achievement represented by the despatch and delivery of mails between England and Australia in 13 or 14 days, and the arrival in New Zealand of letters 18 days after they were sent away from Croydon. New Zealanders, the children or grandchildren of pioneers who faced a six months' voyage when they left Home, bent on colonisation, should realise how far time has been eliminated and distance conquered by the air mail as it stands. When the Tasman crossing becomes independent of steamer connections, the advance will be far greater. It may be necessary to wait a little longer for that day, but even without it the time gained is profoundly impressive. The consequences may be as profound. There are many cross-currents and new influences in Empire relations nowadays. Their old simplicity has gone. But whatever shape they take, speedy and easy means of communication cannot fail to be a beneficent influence. It has been recorded in authoritative history that the constant communication, by letter, between the colonists of the eighteenforties' and onwards and their relatives who stayed at Home, profoundly influenced the colonial policy of those days. It made the colonial Empire a living and a vital thing to the newly enfranchised voters. That close personal link may no longer exist, but its absence makes the means of ready communication between Britain and the colonies grown into Dominions all the more important. The Empire air mail successfully launched thus has a deep significance.