AIR MAIL SERVICE

Waipa Post, Volume 37, Issue 2235, 15 November 1928, Page 3

AIR MAIL SERVICE

BECOMING WORLD-EMBRACING. A material reduction was made in airplane mail rates by tjhe United States Post Office Department, beginning from Ist August. The present rate is 5 cents for the first full ounce, and 10 cents for second and other iounces or fractions thereof. Since the majority of first-class letters is limited to the ounce classification, the reduction is refally 50 per cent for a considerable bulk of the air mail. The new rates, it is said, have already stimulated the use of the air mail materially, and it is anticipated that the growth will be constant. Many large" firms have issued orders to their mail departments to use the air mail exclusively for more important matter For 3 cents additional a business letter may be sent 3000 miles to the Pacific Coast at a saving of three or four days in time. The extension of the air mail service in the United States has been extremely raipid. It is now possible to reach every important part by air transportation. Zones of a thousand miles are covered ovter-night, as between Chicago and New York, and the same holds goods in the longer distances westward and north and south. Banks and large commercial houses have been quick to avail themselves of the facilities for this communication. Banks particularly, with their hundreds of millions of dollars of collection items, have found the air mail extremely profitable. It is said that larger banks in Chicago, New York, and other centres are saving thousands of dollars monthly on the clearance of their collections. The volume of " float," heretofore a source of constant expense or loss of profit, has been reduced enormously. Business firms, clients of banks., are finding it possible to havq credits on out-of-town items made almost as quickly as local collections. All this represents a real saving and an added profit. It adds in effect to working capital. An interesting development of the airplane as applied to over-water mail transportation is now being made. Instead of waiting to dock, or to reach port before delivering mail, an airplane is catapulted from the in-com-ing steamer while, four or five hundred miles from land, with the. result that a whole day is saved in mail delivery. When the plan has passed the experimental stage it is expected that the, airplane will be used at both ends of the: trip, thus making a four days mail delivery between America and Europe possible. What this means merchants and bankers doing an international

business will well appreciate. But while the United States, by reason of its extensive territory, is at present more interested in the extension of domestic service, Great Britain is setting up a schedule of air mail delivery thiat reaches as far out as twelve days, from London. The new rates, and the new arrangeemnts, together with official instructions for the acceptance of letters, post cards, printed and commercial papers, samples, and parcels throughout Great Britain f|or domestic and foreign air mail have just beeen issued. A special blue air mail label is prescribed, and in its absence the 'words, " By Air Mail," should be plainly written. The air mail fee must be fully paid or the lajr mail will be carried in the ordinary way. The maximum weight, dimensions, customs declarations, etc., are the same as for regular mails. Packages will not be delivered in France except in the city of Paris, and delivery is mad'ej there at a charge of 41 francs (61 francs by " express" service), and Bft francs if in the suburbs. Delivery is made in Cologne on the afternoon or evening of the day of dispatch from London, and in Hamburg or Berlin on that evening or ■the next morning. This is true at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Basle, or Zurich. Insurance cannot be cjarried by the postal organisation except on parcels ■destined to Switzerland, where the limit of value is fixed for £4OO. The - rates for air mail services on letters vary between 2d and Is, and these charges are in addition to the regular rates. It is shown that from 12 hours to 16 days can be saved by the use of air mail over the ordinary means. The rates to France, Belgium, Austria, Egypt, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Switzerland are 2d per ounce. To Bulgai'ia, Rumania, and Turkey it is 4d per ounce; while to Estonia and Finland, for instance, it is sd, and to French Guiana and the Belgian Congo it is Is per ounce. Packages are carried to Paris at the rate of Is 9d for 2 lbs, 3s fbr 5 lbs, 4s Sd for 8 lbs, 6s for 11 lbs, and 12s for 22 lbs. Other rates are in proportion. Truly, the world, so far as quicker communication is concerned, is being drawn together as never before. It is a matter not of years but almost of months when an around-the-world air mail service will have become a reality.