AIR MAIL DATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23320, 13 April 1939, Page 15

AIR MAIL DATES

Sir, —With your correspondents, "Inquirer" and "E.H.8.", I, too, would like some explanation of the length of time English air mail letters take to reach us here. I have a regular correspondent in London, and, since the inauguration of the scheme on July 25 to the present date have received 60 letters; the average length of time in transit, from London postmark to receipt here, is* 21 days, ranging from 16 days to 26, 27 and 30 days. Until a few months ago the dates of mail leaving London were published in notices of boats due, but that has been dropped for obvious reasons—letters written on and after those dates seldom arriving until a later boat. As mails leave London three times a week and only take nine days, there is often more delay than is accounted for by connection in Australia. While on this subject, with winter coming, fewer transtasman boats, and the final lap still very much "ih the air," may I say that I think it a great pity boats are so arranged as to leave Auckland and Wellington for Sydney simultaneously and vice versa; last year this often meant a fortnight between mails either way. C.M.J.