DIRECT AIR MAIL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20103, 9 May 1935, Page 8

DIRECT AIR MAIL

NEW ZEALAND TO ENGLAND DESPATCH NEXT WEEK By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, May 8. An historic event for New Zealand in connection with Imperial communications will be the celebration of the King’s jubilee by the despatch of the first mail from New Zealand to England by a complete all air route. This interesting anticipation of rapid mail communication which will be regularly provided less than two years hence has been made possible by the transTasman flight of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith who after arriving in New Zealand from Australia in the Southern Cross next week, proposes to leave on the return flight, probably from New Plymouth, on the morning of May 17. Hitherto air mail correspondence on the Australia-Singapore-England route has had to be conveyed as far as Sydney by steamer, and this is the first opportunity for sending letters by an air route over the whole distance. The New Zealand and Commonwealth authorities and Imperial Airways regard the coming jubilee flight as an historic one in the annals of Empire communication, and are co-operating to provide special facilities to the public for celebrating this distinctive occasion. A record weight of correspondence is expected from New Zealand. consequently a special machine will be utilised to convey a portion of the mail in advance of the normal biweekly service. The keen public interest in these special occasions was evidenced by a remarkable demand for first cover envelopes of the pictorial stamp issue, and the post office is consequently providing jubilee first covers for the inaugural New Zealand-Australia-England air mail. These first cover envelopes are being made available tomorrow. The charge for letters from New Zealand to England will be 2s Id for each half ounce, and the new air mail stamps are now available for use. Tlie pictorial and jubilee issue can also be utilised on this correspondence. Letters posted for the jubilee flight should have the blue air mail label affixed in addition to being superscribed with the name of the flight “New Zealand-England air mail.” The post office emphasises the fact that there is no arrangement for the forwarding beyond Australia of correspondence for New Zealand addressees. Letters for this special flight, in addition to being date stamped at the office of posting, will also be again date-stamped on the day of the aeroplane’s take off from New Zealand and marked with a distinctive cachet.