INLAND AIR MAILS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22824, 7 March 1936, Page 12

INLAND AIR MAILS

No exception can be taken to the decision of the Government with reference to the, inauguration of inland mail services. It is the rather to, be congratulated upon the course it is adopting. The introduction of mail services by air follows naturally and necessarily upon the commencement of. passenger services by air. There was no escape from the conclusion that tho passenger-carrying planes should 'be utilised, as far as they possibly can be utilised, for the conveyance of mails. But there is a limit to their capacity to carry mails. That may be presumed to be one reason why the terms of the announcement which the Post-master-general has made on the subject indicate that it' is an experimental air mail service that is to be introduced. The Government desires to test the extent of the public demand for an acceleration of the mail services in the Dominion. If the test shows that there is an extensive demand, the service may be expected to become a permanent one and provision beyond that which is at present available will have to be made for conducting it. That business people will welcome the opportunity of transmitting mail by air between the more widely separated centres in the Dominion cannot be doubted. Of as great importance, however, as the inauguration of inland air mail services is the conveyance by air within the Dominion of mail that has already been carried by air from the other end of the world. An anticlimax is reached when British mails that have been carried by air to Australia are transported by steamer across' the Tasman Sea, often after delays due to imperfect connections, and are then distributed by rail and steamer throughout New Zealand.