MAILS BY AEROPLANE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3330, 23 September 1911, Page 9

MAILS BY AEROPLANE.

OFFICIAL FLIRTS IN AMERICA. HOW ENGLAND HAS LED THE WAY. England was the first' country that adopted postage stamps and the penny post, and it was the first to introduce also postal savings banks, the parcels pest, and postal telegrams. N-ow it has led the way with another innovation — an aerial mail. service. The experiment that was made of carrying mails from London to Windsor by aeroplanes was undertaken with the object of demonstrating the practicability of such service when either war or strikes would make the ordinary means of transportation unavailable. Everyone was anxious to secure, as a memento of this historic occasion, a letter bearing the postmark of the new service. Many thousands of letters and postcards were carried, and the net profits are to be devoted to public charities.

Mr. Lewis Poole, who, with Captain Windham, organised the aerial mail, pointed out in an interview that when the jxsstal laws were enacted no one dreamt of an aerial post, so that there are all sorts of legal difficulties to be overcome.

“One result,” said Mr. Poole, “is that although we cannot receive any payment, we defray all the expenses of the department may incur, and are hound by the' same rules and subject to the same penalties as the ordinary letter carriers. To pip the whole thing on a. business footing, I had a contract entered into with the Post-master-General, and, in conjunction with Captain Windham, I had to make a contract with Mr. Grnhame White for carrying the mails. “At present we have decided to keep going a limited number of days. Some of the principal firms have agreed to have special postboxes on their premises at cliff ernt points in London. Lloyd’s Bank in St. James Street received donations of a shilling and upwards Urn the charities amongst which the proceeds arc to he distributed. These donations were acknowledged by postcards, and in order that people living at ■a. distance might secure souvenirs of the new aerial service the postcards were collected by the Central Post-office and taken to the aerodrome at Hendon for conveyance by aeroplane to Windror.? ?