Airmail Routes In The Pacific

importance of the New Guinea Link

THE map on this page will serve to illustrate the developments that are taking place in aerial communication in the Pacific.

Pan American Airways now are run ning a regular service across the North Pacific, from San Francisco to Hong Kong.

At Hong Kong, mails and passengers can connect with the regular British and Dutch air services and, following the route shown on the map, they can travel via the East Indies and Darwin to Aus tralia. They can connect, at Singapore or in Java, with the regular services running to Europe.

The Dutch East Indies service is being extended to Australia, via Darwin. There was a report current, during the month, that the Dutch service would connect at Darwin with the new Adelaide-Darwin service recently established by Guinea Airways. This report has not been con firmed, however. It is very interesting, because the Dutch, presumably, will come to Australia in defiance of the Anglo- Australian airways combine, and that combine is understood to be hostile to Guinea Airways, which has not come into the “conference.”

There is no word yet of a contract being let for the Sydney-New Guinea air service, which is referred to elsewhere.

Presumably, this service will be estab lished before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, it is presumed that the directors of Pan American Airways are studying the data gained on the recent survey flight between Honolulu and Auck land, with a view to inaugurating that service within the next twelve months.

In this connection, a glance at the map opens up an interesting speculation. Is there enough business in New Zealand alone to justify the establishment of this Honolulu-Auckland service ? P.A.A., pre

sumably, is counting upon the air-mail business that will be brought across the Tasman Sea from Australia to Auckland, to be taken on to America. It will be noted that the proposed P.A.A. route misses Fiji, which is the only Central Pacific territory which might contribute substantial business to the air service.

Now, suppose that the air-mail service 1 as been established between Sydney and New Guinea. Look at the map. It is only one short hop from New Guinea to Guam, a station on the P.A.A. North Pacific run. Would it not be almost as quick, and very much cheaper, for P.A.A. to carry mails and passengers to and from Australia via Guam and New Guinea, rather than via Honolulu, Samoa and New Zealand? If the Guam-New Guinea route were used, New Zealand would not have an air-mail link with America, except via Australia. But an air-mail service between Australia and New Zealand is coming soon, anyhow; and New Zealand could then, via Aus tralia, get an air-mail connection to either Europe or America.