AIR MAIL RETURNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22894, 30 May 1936, Page 11

AIR MAIL RETURNS

MUCH LOWER THAN ESTIMATE DECREASE LAST WEEK (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, May 29. On the internal air mail services, which the Postmaster-general (Mr F. Jones) doecribed in Auckland on Wednesday as so disappointing in result that discontinuance would probably bo necessary if traffic did not soon show nn improvement, 13,007 letters were carried last week, a decrease of just over 500 from the previous week. Ten weeks of operation of the service have resulted in Just over 150,000 letters being sent by air, of which proably 25,000 were despatched by philatelists in the first and seventh weeks. The Minister, in introducing the service, said that his officers had estimated that the number of letters which would gain in time if carried by air was about 9,000,000 a year, or about a month. Actually the service lias carried about 00,000 a month. If allowance is made for the probable postings of philatelists, the monthly average of ordinary postings becomes about 50,000, giving 000,000 a year, fewer for a year than it was estimated should be flown in a month. The weekly totals siAco the introduction of the service have been: —

Week Number Pounds First .. 097 Second . . .. 12.470 424 Third . .. 14,189 518 Fourth - . . .. 11,770 442 Fifth .. 10,030 380 Sixth .. . ., 12,402 402 Seventh . .. 15,093 548 Eighth . . .. 12,129 433 Ninth .. . .. 13,528 470 Tenth .. . .. 13,007 405