ENGLISH MAILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1938, Page 6

ENGLISH MAILS

PENNY POSTAGE RATE CEASES INSTITUTION OF AIR SERVICES WELLINGTON, This Day. Penny postage for overseas mails ceases today with the despatch by the Monterey from Auckland of approximately 100,000 letters for the United Kingdom, representing an accumulation of nearly a fortnight. The mail will reach London on August 18. a fasl transit for surface routes because it will secure quick connections owing to the operation of the summer' timetable on ■ the Atlantic. To secure the fastest despatch, the first despatch by the Empire air service with its postage of three half-pence for the halfounce leaves Wellington on August 4. and Auckland on the following day to connect with the air service at Sydney on August 9. This mail, leaving New Zealand 11 days later than the mail going today by the fastest surface route in use will reach London on exactly the same day. Every week approximately 78,000 letters are posted in New Zealand for Great Britain and Empire countries which are served by the Empire air route, and these will be delivered about 13 days from the time of despatch from New Zealand and when the Tasman is crossed by the mail planes, the load will increase to approximately 160,000 letters each week, owing to the large volume of postal business between the Dominion and the Commonwealth.