The mail which arrived by the R.M.S. Empress of Asia on Sunday was interesting as being the first under the new scheme of linking up with the Empress ships by aeroplane at Victoria. Formerly, on arrival of the mail by various trains at Seattle, it was transferred to one of the Princess boats leaving immediately for Victoria, but frequently happened that trains were late, and a mail for the East was missed. Now, however, the transfer of the mails by aeroplane will occupy less than an hour, instead of several hours by steamer, and the effect should be that mails from all parts of America will reach Shanghai regularly in 19 or 20 days.
In the present instance, a letter posted at Chicago on the 18th ultimo was in Sunday's mail. Letters have, of course, formerly been delivered here in 90 days, but this was only in consequence of the steamer at Seattle making a direct connexion at Victoria, generally an uncertain event. Had the connexion been missed in this instance, the mail would have been held until the departure of the str. Fushimi Maru, which is not due until the 19th instant, and the importance of the new service will thus he seen. in this case effecting a saving in time of 10 days.
The aeroplane mail carried some 600 Ib. of letters, or nearly 5,000 letters, at an average of 2 oz. each.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.