Glyer - The Major and the Missionary

I wonder how long the post took between Oxford and Papua New Guinea.

Trotter wrote:

I wonder how long the post took between Oxford and Papua New Guinea.

Seems reasonably fast - for example there's a letter on 30 March that was replied to on 6 April.

Urulókë wrote:

Trotter wrote:

I wonder how long the post took between Oxford and Papua New Guinea.

Seems reasonably fast - for example there's a letter on 30 March that was replied to on 6 April.

Wow. Way faster than regular post these days!

Urulókë wrote:

Trotter wrote:

I wonder how long the post took between Oxford and Papua New Guinea.

Seems reasonably fast - for example there's a letter on 30 March that was replied to on 6 April.

There is something not quite right with those dates, unless they were Telegrams perhaps? But telegrams were incredibly expensive.

When I would write to my Grandparents in South Africa (Durban), it would take 17 days on average for a letter to arrive and that was in the late 80s/ - early 90s.

I have no reason to doubt the letter dates. Here's a direct quote from letter 39: "Dear Dr. Biggs, Many thanks for yours of the 11th which reached me on the 20th" (1970). There are other letter gaps of 4-6 days throughout (and, of course, much larger gaps for a variety of reasons).

Letter 42 (19 Dec 1970) responding to 41 (13 December) topics. "Dear Dr. Biggs, I'm afraid that even by Air Mail it is now useless to send you my best wishes for a happy Christmas".

Urulókë wrote:

I have no reason to doubt the letter dates. Here's a direct quote from letter 39: "Dear Dr. Biggs, Many thanks for yours of the 11th which reached me on the 20th" (1970). There are other letter gaps of 4-6 days throughout (and, of course, much larger gaps for a variety of reasons).

Letter 42 (19 Dec 1970) responding to 41 (13 December) topics. "Dear Dr. Biggs, I'm afraid that even by Air Mail it is now useless to send you my best wishes for a happy Christmas".

Quite remmarkable. A letter from Australia to PNG takes around 8 days standard, 2 days by express, in 2023. So that turn around for letters from the UK to PNG in 1970 seems almost impossible.

Warren Lewis must have been money and proof that things used to work better.