AIR MAILS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 178, 29 June 1937, Page 5

AIR MAILS

AUCKLAND-WELLINGTON ROUTE. WIDESPREAD SAVINGS IN TIME. New Zealand’s inland air mail facilities have made a substantial advance since the Wellington-Palmerston NorthNew Plymouth-Auckland service of Union Airways, Ltd., commenced operating. Prior to June 27, the Dominions air mail services involved a. daily route mileage of nearly 2000 but, with the addition of the new service and that of the Napier-Gisborne route, the daJy mileage reaches 13050. Mail arrangements have been revised so that full advantage can bo taken of the quicker despatch for letters between Wellington and Auckland, connecting services by rail and road being utilised from the points now to be reached by air. The usual air mail rate of 2d per ounce is payable irrespective of the number of air routes used, and covers should bear the blue air mail label on the top left-hand corner. The principal closing times for air mails on the new route are: —Wellington, 11 tt.m.; Auckland, 10.45 a.m.; New Plymouth (southbound), 12.15 p.m.; New Plymouth (northbound), 1 p.m.; Palmerston North (northbound), 11.45 a.m.; Palmerston North (southbound), 1.30 p.m. Air mail letters posted in Auckland at 10.45 a.m. reach Christchurch on the following day at 7.30 a.m. and Dunedin (by linking up with the Bouth Island air route at Palmerston North) at 1.30 p.m. Letters posted in Dunedin at 7 a.m. and Christchurch 9 a.m. reach Auckland at 3.40 o’clock on the same day; .and there are similar savings in time for all centres en route. Wellington letters posted at 11 a.m. reach New Plymouth at 2.15 p.m. and Auckland at 3.40 p.m. . There has been steady growth in the regular use of the air maiis in New Zealand and. although the business is still of modest proportions, it has more tlvui doubled during the pact year. Air mail letters posted during the week ended April 19, 1936, totalled 10,900, and exactly a year later the weekly postings had reached 28,300. It is now expected that with so important an extension of the facilities the Dominion’s air mail business will rapidly expand.