AIR MAILS

Southland Times, Issue 22293, 7 April 1934, Page 6

AIR MAILS

A FURTHER FILLIP AIR FORCE PLANES TO BE USED CARRIAGE ON ARRIVAL (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 6. The enterprise of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Mr C. T. P. Ulm in pioneering the carriage of mails in the Southern Cross and the Faith in Australia between Australia and New Zealand will receive a furthei fillip by arrangements now completed for the distribution of the air mail on arrival in New Plymouth to some of the principal centres of the Dominion by Royal New Zealand Air Force machines. The project of the Defence Department in helping the Post and Telegraph Department in delivering quickly the eagerly looked forward to air mail in both islands has been receiving the consideration of the Minister of Defence (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) for some time, and the Minister stated this evening that it had now been found possible for the Air Force branch of the Defence Department to link up in the enterprise of demonstrating the possibilities of air mails. “The use of service aeroplanes,” said the Minister, “has been authorized to distribute trans-Tasman air mails due to arrive at New Plymouth on Wednesday by the Faith in Australia. The planes will be used for the transport of mails from New Plymouth to Auckland, Wellington and possibly Christchurch. Should the South Island portion of the mail be small and the time of arrival permit, a machine from Wigram aerodrome will carry it on its homeward journey.” Mr Cobbe added that quite apart from the interest philatelists took in air mail stamps, it was evident from the large number of letters carried in the initial trips of the Faith in Australia and the Southern Cross that there were many relatives and friends residing in the two countries. They would no doubt appreciate the expedition of the delivery of the mails by the arrangement it had now been found practicable to make.