INLAND AIR MAILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 January 1939, Page 8

INLAND AIR MAILS

REMARKABLE CHRISTMAS RECORD. Now Zealand's inland air-mail services hilly shared in the Christmas rush of Post Office business, the Christmas week figures putting up a remarkable record, 46 per cent better than that of the corresponding week of the previous year. Letters carried by the inland air-mail services in the week proceeding Christmas totalled 68,445. and the parcels business was also quite appreciable, showing an improvement on the corresponding period of the previous year to the' extent of 17J per cent.

The commercial air services of the Dominion cover so large a daily mileage that they are becoming an important factor in mail transport. Late connections with overseas despatches are extensively made by means of the Id surcharge for inland transport, and on one recent occasion 2,000 letters were posted in Wellington for air-mail transit to Auckland in order to catch the overseas despatch. Since the middle of November, the inland air-mails have carried over 50,000 letters weekly, the business showing a definite improvement when the second service between Auckland and the South was resumed at the encl of October. The Christmas record is mainly due to the usual flood of mails at that time, bur the figures would not have so satisfactory if the normal business of the inland air-mails had not already reached more substantial proportions than a year ago.