GREAT AIR SERVICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16349, 5 February 1924, Page 4

GREAT AIR SERVICE.

WESTERN. AUSTRALIA LINE. A REMARKABLE. SUCCESS. SYDNEY,- Jan. 24.—The. success of the long-distance air mail and passenger service,: which lias been running' regularly in;-Western Australia for more than two years,, is being, strikingly, demon: -- strated this week by .its'..-extension to servo an< additional distance of about 250 miles. Hitherto the. mail has . started from the railhead at Geraldtou, meeting all trains from Perth and carrying passengers and mails right up to Derby on,the north-west, coast of the continent. The flying distance is about 1000 miles. I "This week the service is being extended to (Perth itself, already served by rail, though much more speedily, and adding about 250,miles on to* the trip. The service, which is. conducted by- contractors Under the Federal Government, is the only one of its kind in the Commonwealth, 'although it is intended to establish others in the eastern States.* Its vast distances have been covered., with almost clockwork regularity, • and&the number of passengers, freight and'miails"has'gone on steadily increasing''so that this year two additional aeroplanes will be landed. These will be of the "latest -British commercial type-, ' capable of carrying four passengers nHb mail and freight in addition to the pilot. Tho service has become very popular among station owners, many of whom have cleared, landing grounds near to their homesteads. The 'planes regularly make detours to land or take up passengers, being advised'by telephone when one wishes, to be taken up. A special landing fee is charged for this service. Prnctically'every trip is fully, booked all along .the long route, and. although'a special fee is charged for letters intended „ for air transit, this is effected so rapidly that all urgent correspondence is entrusted to it. Although few people make the entire journey, in© service depending upon passengers between the various staged, it has proved of great value in several instances in giving visitors Co the Commonwealth a unique-opportunity of obtaining a bird's eye view of a huge tract of Australian territory.right up into tho tropical coastlands of the Kimberley district. It is intended ',that eventually there shall be a chain of services which will connect up the north and south and the east and •west. With a service from Brisbane to Sydney, another from Sydney'.to .Melbourne,", another from Melbourne to'Adelaide, and another right across the 'continent from Adelaide to Perth, where the present service from Perth to tile far north-west would be met, there would be little needed to complete, the'aerial encirclement of the continent.