STAMP ISSUES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 593, 26 July 1933, Page 7

STAMP ISSUES

n.z. introduction INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS OF 78 YEARS AGO. IMPiROVING POSTAL FACILITIES. Seventy-edght years ago, on July 18, postage stamps were issued in New Zealand for the first time. T'he adhesive stamp was introdueed to tbe public of Great Britain by Sir Rowland Hill on May 6, 1840, but although its advantages were recognised immediately by every civilised country in the world, general adoption was a process spread over a considerable number of years, so that it was not until July 18, 1855, that the colony received its first issue (writes W.H.T. in The Dominion). The first mention of postage stamps for use in New Zealand is contained. in a proclamation issued by Sir George Grey under date of Deeemher 31, 1850. It enaets: — "And whereas it is expedient that by prepaying the postage', persons shall be enabled to send letters to and from the Colony of New Zealand to Great Britain, free of postage to the person receiving same, and that a system of prepayment of letters by stamps shall be introdueed into New Zealand, etc., etc " Some four and a half years later the Gazette, in a notice published on July 18, 1855, announeed that the pos. tag:e stamps referred to in the proclamation had been received and issued, and were on sale by postmasters. Thus the .Gazette notice of July 18, 1855, may rightly be regarded as the birth certificate of New Zealand postage stamps. The First Stamps. The Colony's first stamps were of three denominations — one penny, twopenny and one shilling, and the initial issue compr.is.ed 12,000 one-penny, 66,000 two-penny, and 8000 one-shil-ling. The design consisted of a threequarter face bust portrait of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, from the oils painted by Mr. A. E. Chalon, R.A., in 1838, depicting her Majesty in the rob.es and. insignia of the Order of the Garter. The stamps are on white paper — the two-penny and one shilling sometim.es "blued" in the printing — and are watermarked wdth a large six-rayed star. The first output was printed in London, subsequent orders being fulfilled by Mr. J. Riehardson, an Auckland printer — and later by other New Zealand printers. The "full-face" stamp — so termed by colleetors — remained in vogue until 1872, and was then superseded by the "side-face" design. The New Zealand "full-face" has always been regarded as one of the most beautiful and artistic stamps ever issued and a row of these fine old postal relics is an ornament to any stamp album. The 1855 is now fairly soarce-, and a fine copy of the penny on the original envelope was recently sold in London for £250, while an unused pair realised £450. Poor Postal Service. The issuing of these stamps 78 years ago resulted in a great improvement in the postal arrangements. Hitherto they were so had that it was no uncommon thing for a letter to take two or three years to reach its destination in the Old Country,0 by which time various ladded postal chargjes may have made the letter literally worth its weight in gold. Some idea of the position in 1848 may be gained from the following extract from an early settler's handhook published in that year: — "The postal arrangements for New Zealand are exceedingly imperfeet, in consequence of the general defectiveness of our (Great Britain's) regulations for Maritime and Colonial postage, and also of the absence of any regular packets between Niew Zealand and any other part of the world. To and from England direct, however, the greater number of ships arrive at or depart from Wellington, and these, although varying in regularity with the progress of emigration and. or commerce, afford the best mode of conveyance. Next best is to send letters via Sydney, between which port and London there is a regular lime of mail packets (sailing vessels). "The letters still have to find their way as best they can between Sydney and any port in New Zealand. Letters sentl from New Zealand to the ports of India hy vessels happening to sail thither generally arrive in England safely and .expeditiously by the Overland Mail, but letters cannot be sent by that route from England as there

ai*e no arrangements 101 iorwa-iunig mails from India to the Australian Golonies. Mail Bags Kept for Months. "A similar facility exists in favour of letters sent from New Zealand to (England via Valpariso, but these nrust be directed to the care of some agent at the latter place as our Consul there is in no way empoweder to facilitate and enforce the sending on of any mail-bag hy the steamers to Panama. On the contrary, the master of a ship may, if he chooses, keep the mail-bag for months on the coast of South America and take it round Cape Horn after all. It would he almost hopeless to send a letter to New Zealand via Panama and Valparaiso, becanse owang to the prevalence of the westerly winds in the Southern Hemisphere comp'aratively few sailing vessels return to the eastward, and those that do are obliged to shape 'a very tortuous conrse. "The mails between the different ports of New Zealand are carried

from time to time by such vessels as happen to he sailing, and the only regular* mail yet established is one which is carried every fortnight overland, partly by the patrols of the mounted police and partly hy Natives, between Wellington and Auckland, by way of Petre (Wanganui) and New Plymouth. The Cost — 1/4 an Ounce. "Owing to all these irregularities the cost of sending a letter from England to any part ofi New Zealand is composed of one or more of a number of varying rates, such as the ship-let-ter rate (for one or two voyages as the ca.se may he), the Colonial rate of India or of some other colony through which the letter may pass, the overland mail rate, and lastly the local postage rate in New Zealand. An ordinary ship-letter carried the whole distancie from London to Wellington in the same private ship is charged at the enormous rate of eightpence at each end, or one shilling and fourpence on the whole, for every half-oz. rate. "Newspapers are also charged at this rate hy private ships, and this charge amounts to a- virtual prohibition of them in the colony. At one time piles of Ehglish newspapers used to lie in the post offie© at Wellington — the postage remaining unpaid hy th'ose to whom they were directed. Now they are sent as parcels.' It seems strange that with_ a postage system in England of wlxich we are so justly proud the conveyance of letters' from England to her colonies and between the colonies themselves should be so grossly uiismanaged.'' — '(The Handhook for -New Zealand, Consisting of the Most Recent Information, Compiled for the Use of Intending Cblbnists. By EI L'^kefieia, 1848.)