TO BE RESUMED NEXT MONTH

Southland Times, Issue 24161, 25 June 1940, Page 6

TO BE RESUMED NEXT MONTH

Trans-Pacific Air Service

ROUTE BETWEEN N.Z. AND U.S.A.

FIRST FLIGHT TO BEGIN ON JULY 12

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, June 24.

The trans-Pacific air service between the United States and New Zealand will be resumed next month, according to advice received by the PostmasterGeneral (the Hon. P. C. Webb) from the United States Post Office Department at Washington. Mr Webb said today that the first flight was scheduled to begin from San Francisco on July 12 and to end at Auckland on July 17. The flying-boat would leave Auckland on July 20, re-’ turning to San Francisco on July 24. The Minister said he understood, that the service would be on a fortnightly basis, the intermediate stops being Noumea, Canton Island and Honolulu.

“The regular operation of the transPacific service should prove a valuable extension to the overseas air mail Communications of the Dominion, particularly during the suspension of the United Kingdom-Egypt section of the Empire air service,” Mr Webb said. “An excellent service will be provided with the United States, although because of war conditions it is,expected that letters sent by the trans-Pacific route to the United Kingdom will be about 12 days in transit.” POSTAGE RATES Mr Webb said that the postage rates on letters sent from New Zealand by the service were as follows: To New Caledonia, 1/- a half ounce; to Canton Island, 1/9 a half ounce; to Hawaii, 2/6 a half ounce; to the United States. 4/a half ounce. Postcard rates would be half those for letters. The rates quoted were inclusive of any dispatch by surface transport and those for the United States included dispatch on the internal air services there. Rates had also been fixed for the use of other services which were available in conjunction with the New ZealaridUnited States service, Mr Webb said.'He quoted as examples the charge of 5/3 a half ounce for letters for Hong Kong by way of Honolulu, and 6/3 a half ounce for letters for the United Kingdom conveyed by air across the United States and the Atlantic.

“In conjunction with the United States and the New Caledonian Post Offices arrangements are being made for all letters carried on the first flight to be distinctively marked with a rubber stamp and for letters to be back stamped at various points, except Canton Island,” said the Minister. “Return covers—letters posted by stamp collectors addressed to themselves in New Zealand—will beaccepted for forwarding on the first flight to Noumea, Honolulu or San Francisco for return by surface mail without extra charge. There is no post office provision for the return of such covers by air mail. So far as Canton Island is concerned, however, the arrangements are different because there is no post office on the island.