AERIAL MAILS
EXPERIMENTS AT, AUCKLAND TRIAL FLIGHTS THIS WEEK The carriaße of mails by aeroplano is to lie the icntter of further experiment l>v the Post Office this week. Truu trips between Auckland and Dargavillo i uroved successful last December. the Postmaster-General (Hon. J. G. Co ll '' o -'' has notr arranged with Messrs. Walsh Brother and Dexter, of tho New Zen- , land Flying School, Auckland, for ex- . oerimental flights for the carriage of mails extending over a period of a | month or tiro months between Auckland and Thames, Whangarei, and Dargavillc. ' There will be probably two trim a week everv third week over each of tho routes named. The trips this week, when the experiment will be fully started, will bo ' to Whangarei, and the trips tho followiua week will be to Dargavillc, In thiwo experimental trips tho contractors rake all risk of loss or accident; but the matter of whether the conditions on any (lav are suitable for aviation is left to the discretion of the contractors. As the weather is the ruling factor in the ' running of the machines it will not bo possible for the Postal Department to give longer than a notice of Wie projected departure of a 'plane. Asked as to the cost to bo charged on letters posted to go by the seaplanes. Mr; C'oates said that in tho present trial services no additional rate would tie imposed for postage, ns the services wero being arranged more with a view of demonstrating tho practicability or otherwise of regular services than in the exlactation of making the trips 6e.Maying. When, however, regular trips w-iv.i established. it was proposed to inipo. e (special rates of postage for mails carried ,iy an, and as letters so carried would b l ' practically "telegram-letters" without limitation of, the number of words which each letter could contain, ho thought the eer* vices would be very popular from the postal Doinc of view. "I am naturally very pleased, _ said Mr. Coates on Saturday, "at the inception of the aerial mail _ services, whioh marks an advance in this country a poslal progress. I hope that the trials will be a success, and so enable the services to be made permanent. The air machine was fully tested durijg the war. The wonderful work the • ripchinea did in Franco is recognised by everybody, particularly by the men who served in the lines, and there is no reason why they should not be adapted for use for other purposes. Many parts of the North Island lend themselves admirably for the work of the seaplanes. The weather conditions are much more settled in the North than in the South. Another matter which influenced tho trials being made in the Auckland district .was the large navigable rivers and smooth-water harboirs which abound there, and these features aro essential to the starting and landing of tho seaplane. I hope Ihnt <vhen more powerful machines are available and the benzine shortage not so acute trial trips will be made over otheroutes, as, for example, between Nnpier and Gisborne via Wairoa. There are in New Zealand a good many backblock districts which by reason of their isolation have to wait 6omc days for their mails, and if some arrangement could be mnde to enable bags containing maiis to be dropped as the seaplanes puss over the towns, as was done at Helensville in the trial trip between Auckland f.n' Dargaville last December, if would be a great boon to the settlers."
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 133, 1 March 1920, Page 6
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581AERIAL MAILS Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 133, 1 March 1920, Page 6
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