AIR MAILS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20983, 11 March 1938, Page 8

AIR MAILS

INLAND BUSINESS DOUBLED OVERSEAS EXPANSION By Telegraph Press Association WELLINGTON. March 10. The Post Office is now utilising lor letter transport by air in New Zealand i a daily route mileage of 3813 miles and the improved facilities provided for a I flat rate surcharge of a penny per • ounce a letter have encouraged the • development of the traffic at a satis- • factory rate bearing a close approxima- ' tion to the increasingly wide range served by the aeroplane. Route mileage represents the distance actually covered by aeroplanes carrying mails. For instance, from Palmerston North to Dunedin is 495 miles, and the traversing of this route once in each direction every day involves a route mileage of 990. while the six trips from Wellington to Blenheim (45 miles) add 270 to the daily total. In February’ last year the air senices were covering 2000 miles daily, and the number of letters carried weekly was about 22.000. To-day the weekly total is more than double that amount. For the week ended December 26. the i air mails shared in the Christmas posI tai activity, the weekly postings reach- • ing 48.887. There was a decline in the i following holiday weeks, but the posi- ; tion soon improved, and the weekly averages are now’ more than double i those of the corresponding periods of last year, recent figures being as follows: Week ended Letters carried January 2 27.551 January 9 29.879 January 16 40.196 January 23 40.610 January 30 .. .. 39.276 February 6 39.143 February’ 13 42,046 February’ 20 41.165 The daily air-mail services in opera- ; tion comprise: Wellington-Palmerston : North-New Plymouth-Auckland; Wel- , lington-Palmerston North - Auckland; Palmerston North - Napier-Gisborne; Palmerston North-Christchurch-Dun-edin; and the Cook Strait services to Blenheim and Nelson. The thriceweekly Nelson-Greymouth-Hokitika, and the weekly Hokitika-Okura services represent a route mileage of 570, bring- ! ing the total inland air-mail route , mileages to 4383. Overseas air-mails despatched from 1 the Dominion are also becoming subi stantial in volume, the growth during the last three years being at the rate of more than 70 per cent annually. LetI ters despatched by the Sydney-Singa-pore-London air service during the last three years were as follow’s:— 1935 1936 1937 117.809 209,647 324,470 A feature of this modem phase of postal business is the increasing use of the air-mail in connection with Christmas traffic. The December business in 1935 was a modest total of 11.523 letters, but this total rose to 33.319 in the following December, while last December it reached 38.860. Coming down to the normal volume. January’s figure of 28,660 compared very favourably with the 17,687 letters handled in January last year.