EMPIRE AIR MAIL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19122, 17 September 1936, Page 8

EMPIRE AIR MAIL

COST TO AUSTRALIA REDUCED BY £40,000 SYDNEY Aug. 25. If the Federal Government, as is expected, accepts the British offer to carry all first-class mail by flying boat from. .Sydney to London for a fixed annual payment,- the scheme will cost Australia about £40.030 a year less than if the proposal had been accepted when it was tirst made. The amount asked from Australia has been reduced by this amount in the course ,of the negotiation's, most of which have been carried 1 out by the Minister of Commerce, Dr. Page, in London.

With this reduction, payments by the Commonwealth for actual carriage ol mails by living boat will be about £120,000 a year.

In adtlition, Australia, will probably be responsible for the construction and at least part of the maintenance, of flying boat bases in Australian waters. It, is believed that this expenditure will be a good deal less than £50.000 annually for upkeep and capital charges, but detailed estimates are difficult to make until Ihc sites for the bases and the precise nature of the equipment have been determined. In considering the cost ot the scheme, the Cabinet will take into consideration several credits and debits which will be created on a basis of existing accounts by the. now system of mail carriage. Revenue from the present.surcharge on air mail will be lost® but the amount of mail subsidy at present paid to the shipping companies will be reduced. PRESENT POSITION The present position is that Britain has decided to send all her first-class mails by flying boat to Sydney. She has not accepted an Australian counterproposal for the carriage of mails by land ’plane from Darwin southward, though it is understood that Australia’s anxiety to maintain the internal and other local services lias been met in the negotiations w ith practical consideration.

Dr. Page also investigated in London the possibility of Australia’s deciding to continue a surcharge on oversea air mail, which would be carried to London by the. flying, boats on a poundage basis. It :is understood, however, that there is little likelihood that this proposal will be adopted, as the cost of sending a comparatively small quantity of mail on (his basis would necessarily bo so high that the scheme would be uneconomic. It would cost more to send 30 tons of mail per annum at poundage rates than the amount which, under the full scheme, it is proposed that Australia shall pay for the transport of all her letter mails for London, weighing about-150 tons a year.