EMPIRE AIR MAIL SERVICE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21646, 6 May 1940, Page 6

EMPIRE AIR MAIL SERVICE

Awarua Crossing Tasman To-day

Six Passengers To Be

Carried

By Telegraph —Pres? Association

AUCKLAND, May 5

Making her first commercial flight from Auckland to Sydney in the service of Tasman Empire Airways, the flying-boat Awarua. commanded by Captain Oscar Garden, will leave from the company’s base at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning. She will arrive at Sydney early in the afternoon and return to Auckland on Thursday afternoon. The Awarua will take six passengers and approximately 5001 b of air-mail although an accurate tally of the number of letters has not been made it is estimated that the figure is in the vicinity of 20,000. This is about half the mail carried by the Aotearoa on her inaugural crossing last week, when first flight covers formed a large proportion of the mail.

Colonel N. S. Falla, one of the United Kingdom representatives on the directorate of Tasman Empire Airways and Base Commandant of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Overseas Base, will be a passenger. Other travellers will be Messrs T. F. Fausett, G. W. Brown, N. E. Higgs, K Palmer and J. Percival.

THE WAR EFFORT Aid From Public Service By Telegraph—Pres? Association WELLINGTON, May 4. Appreciation of the excellent spirit prevailing throughout the Public Service was expressed to-day by the Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser. Not only were all departments working strenuously and keenly in the war effort, but the response in enlistments was very heartening. “Further evidence of the splendid feeling throughout the service is seen in the action of the Public Service Association, representing those departments under the control of the Public Service Commissioner, voting £5OO of its funds as an interest-free loan to the Government for the duration of the war and six months thereafter,” said Mr Fraser. “An auxiliary of the Association, the Government Buildings Refreshment Rooms Committee, has taken similar action to the extent of £lO2O. The Public Service Association has given £5OO to the National Patriotic Fund and members of the service have voluntarily offered a monthly donation to the fund by way of deduction from their salaries. This splendid gesture is worthy of the highest praise and support of every thinking public servant. Even though the individual subscriptions be small, the aggregate sum over a period will be impressive.”