AIR MAIL TO AUSTRALIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18849, 11 April 1931, Page 13

AIR MAIL TO AUSTRALIA.

Progress Of First Service. REGULAR trips mooted. YJnlt«<3 Press Association--By IDectrti *e*egraph—Copyright LONDON, April 9. The first Australian air mail which left Croydon on April 4. has arrived at Alexandria. The aeroplane carries a total of 50,000 letters, 35.000 comprising the ordinary weekly air mail to India and Central Africa, and the remaining 15,000 being the first consignment to Australia. This is considered a splendid response from the public, showing the national interest in the experiment. IMPORTANT PLANS. TRY-OUT FOR THE REGULAR SERVICE. A cablegram from Sydney on March 30 stated:—lmperial Airways, Limited, has cabled to its Sydney agents intimating that experimental flights are being arranged for next month between England and Australia. The object is to ascertain whether a regular air service between London and Darwin is practicable. Aeroplanes will leave London on April 4 and 25. They will return from Darwin seven days after their arrival there. Mail probably will be carried. At last, it seems, a definite step has been taken in preparing the way for a regular mail and passenger aeroplane service between Australia and London. The announcement early in April that Imperial Airways. Ltd., had arranged for two experimental flights from London to Darwin aroused the greatest interest. The first flight will begin on 4th April and the second flight on 25th April. The link between Darwin and Sydney will be provided by the Queensland Air Services, the organisation known as Qantas. For many years now the possibility of establishing a service has been discussed with the Imperial authorities, «nd the impression is that the failure of the Commonwealth to assist financially has been the cause of the delay. The Dutch air services have also made frequent attempts to interest the Commonwealth, but the Government has always expressed a determination that •all air services over Australia should be controlled in Australia. When the Government announced that it would not permit a foreign service to carry mails between Darwin and the capitals the Dutch company ceased to have any interest in the project. Strangely enough, the announcement of the trial flights did not come from the Government, but from Rudders, Ltd., the Australian agents for Imperial Airways. The managing director of Rudders said that he had not been informed of the type of machine that would be used. The first ’plane was expected at Darwin on 19th April and the second on 10th May. They would leave again on 27th April and 17th May. It was presumed that mails would be carried on the outward journey, and no doubt arrangements would be made for mails to be carried back. Sir Keith Smith announced that the company for which he was the Australian agent, Vicars Aviation, Ltd., was providing a machine in which Mr Neville Stack was to leave London shortly for Darwin. That flight would be in the nature of an experiment, and might have an important bearing on the policy of Imperial Airways, which was extremely anxious to extend its services to Australia, provided sufficient inducement was offering. Mr Stack would bring mails to Australia, and he had planned to do the round trip in three weeks.