AIR MAILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1938, Page 9

AIR MAILS

EMPIRE SCHEME. ’ TO OPERATE SHORTLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. After July 26, all letters and postcards exchanged between New Zealand and Empire countries served by the Australia-England and England-South Africa air services will be forwarded by air as the normal means of dispatch. The same will apply in the opposite direction to correspondence from Empire countries en route to New Zealand. The postage rate on letters for all Empire-countries (except Australia), including protectorates and mandated territories, also Egypt, will be lid each halfounce. An announcement to the above effect was made by the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon M. J. Savage, yesterday. The outstanding features of the change are: 1. An increase on July 26 in the letter postage rate to Empire countries, excluding for the present Australia, Rarotonga, and Apia, from Id an ounce to Igd each half-ounce. 2. The dispatch by air of all letters for Empire countries served by the Australia-England and England-South Africa air services; and 3. The fixing of the United Kingdom rate to all foreign countries, except Egypt, at 2£d for the first ounce and lid for each succeeding ounce. The principal countries participating in the Empire service are Great Britain and Ireland, Australia, South Africa, India, Ceylon, and Malaya. Correspondence for Canada and Newfoundland will be forwarded by air via Great Britain or by sea direct, whichever offers the quicker dispatch. Correspondence for Australia will similarly be carried by air when the transTasman air service is inaugurated, but the postage rate on letters for Australia will continue meantime at Id each ounce. The rates for newspapers, packets, and parcels remain unchanged. These articles will continue to be forwarded by sea. The last dispatch of letters by sea to the United Kingdom will be from Auckland on July 25.