Mr. Bruce, the Prime Minister, is in London urging that the transport of mails to Australia shall be expedited, and he is reported to have complained that Australia is being overlooked in 'd. to the airship services. One is rather weary of hearing these complaints, secing that Australia herself is shockingly slow about' doing anything worth while. It is a long time ago that investigation showed that much of the delay im delivery of owr overseas mails from Europe was due to our inferior land services between Fremantle on the west and Melbcurna on the east coasts. Now it is announced that by speeding up the ships, and omitting Bombay as a port of call, mails for Australia will be delivered at Fremantle two days earlier. This will give an advantage of two days to Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, but (Melbourne will only gain one day, because the mally will not be sorted on Saturday, as that is the day of the sorters' half-holiday!! It sounds like a couplet out of a comic opera.
The late Government subsidized two aeroplane services, one in the northwest of Western Australia, and the ether in the back western country of Queensland. They have been running steadily for months, but we wait in vain for the commencement of the services—long promised—between Adelaide and Sydney, and Sydney and Brisbane. It is surely not for us to complain of delays in other parts of the Empire. Or course the late Prime Minister, Mr. W. M. Hughes, was the target for much because he would not leave private enterprise
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.