AIR MAIL DISTRIBUTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23428, 18 August 1939, Page 8

AIR MAIL DISTRIBUTION

Incoming Empire mails may shortly be carried on the "all-up" basis to all the main centres of distribution in New Zealand. This objective, outlined yesterday by the Postmaster-General, Mr. Jones, is in every way desirable and it is to be hoped that the investigations now being conducted by the Post and Telegraph Department into the internal handling of overseas mails will be completed ■ before the inauguration of the Tasman service. Once the three flying-boats of Tasman Empire Airways are in service between Sydney and Auckland, the delays occasioned through the missing of steamer connections will be eliminated and letters flown from London to Sydney in 10 days will be in Auckland only half a day or a day later. It would be almost an anachronism, therefore, if a letter addressed to Dunedin did not reach its destination until three days after its arrival in New Zealand. That would be its fate if the existing standard services were maintained. It is Mr. Jones' hope that both the collection of outward overseas mail and the distribution of incoming consignments will be speeded up by the use of internal air services. Under such an arrangement, English mail for Dunedin would reach its destination on the day following its arrival in Auckland. The suggestion that outward mail from the south may be sent to Auckland by air to connect with the flying-boat service possibly foreshadows the abolition of the existing surcharge for this particular form of transit, a development that would be welcomed in many quarters. Taken all round, the proposals should enable New Zealand to derive the maximum benefit from its inclusion on the air x'outes of the Empire.