NEWSLETTER OF THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY OF NZ

ROYAL LINES

www.rpsnz.org.nz

                PO BOX 1269, WELLINGTON 6140 TEL: (04) 472-2590 FAX: (04) 472-5426 rpsnz@orcon.net.nz

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Vol.47 No 6,   July 2008

1. July Meeting

 

The next meeting of the Society will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday 8 July in the first floor rooms of Turnbull House, Bowen Street, Wellington.

NOTE: The library will be open for members from 7.00pm to 7.25pm on meeting nights.

 

Programme:    -Welcome - Business

-Items of Interest

-Speaker: Adam Miller, President's Night.

 

Adam will be talking through frames from three of his collections, all united with a transport theme. He'll have Peru's Feura de Valija mails, New Zealand automotive advertising covers and some local

major parcel companies.

2. June Meeting,,

The joint meeting with the Hutt Valley Philatelic Society was held on 3 June at Lower Hutt.  Leigh Gravestock, the Hutt Valley President, welcomed Adam Miller, the Royal's President, and members of the Royal to the joint meeting where the invited speaker was Ivor Masters from New Zealand Post.  Mention was made by Leigh that the Hutt Society 'was to introduce a new competition into their annual programme and that instead of competitions being scattered throughout the year they would all now be held in August.

From the thirty plus at the meeting, the boards were full of items of interest.  The more interesting or unusual ones were the old 78rpm records from Adam about which he explained the attached royalty stamps.  Des Hurley with a selection of black and white post cards picked up on his recent trip to Europe.  Terry Isaac, with some recent envelopes with a range of postmarks from collectable ones, to others which drowned the stamps in ink!  A Christchurch Philatelic Society newsletter franked with the recent PYC CAL, an Indian Registered letter with cachet “SPEED POST'.  Stephen Chivers - a post card with a forged Wellington cancel along with an overpaid cover franked with a 3/- Mt Egmont pictorial stamp.  Brian Vincent showed a 1956 cover from China which featured young lads playing rugby - probably Shanghai.  He had recently been up to New Plymouth and made mention of a letter to the editor he had seen printed in the Taranaki Daily News, with regards to how slow the mail delivery was from UK Royal Mail through the DX system.  Bob Watson showed something from one of his passions - Mail-to the USA.  This one being a 6d rated one with 3 x 2d SSF's, back-stamped Russell, Auckland and San Francisco.  Neil Fenwick had something more modern with a reused commercial envelope bearing a National Mail stamp clearly also recycled, because it had brown paper adhered to its back and it had been stapled onto the envelope. Cheeky!

 

Of course we really came to hear what the General Manager of New Zealand Post Stamps and Collectables division had to say.  Ivor has been out to the Hutt Society a number of times over the past few years and is always willing to make himself available and to spread the word about stamps and what his division is doing. We were all waiting for the free samples which of course never arrived but he did bring with him a number of examples/proofs of upcoming stamp issues, the A-Z stamps, Sir Edmond Hillary, Olympics, Christmas and Health.

 

The meeting was most impressed with some of the innovative designs. As usual the most time was spent with questions and answers and there were a lot of these from the floor. One of the main issues was the use of or "father perceived restrictions for use of postage stamps on parcels over a certain size.  Ivor was to investigate whether track and trace packages stamps were still able to be used.  Another contentious issue raised was that some postshops and agencies do not have anywhere near enough stock of new issues.  Ivor assured the meeting that every Post Shop or agency was supplied with every new issue and the problem may lie with their reordering or lack of reordering system.  The problem of cancellations and how they don’t favourably compare with many other countries was also raised; CAL's or personalised postage - Ivor was asked if there was a possibility that more information could be released about these, i.e. issue dates, what the designs were and who issued them.

 

This was a very interesting and informative joint meeting and most present would have got something from Ivor's presentation. (Thanks to Neil Fenwick for these notes -Ed.)

 

3. Obituaries

Royal Lines regrets to advise the passing away recently of two long standing and well respected members, Gordon Rodger, a member for nearly 25 years and a Fellow of the Society and John Brewer a member for 26 years. Gordon was an expert on the postal history of Fiji. Condolences go to their families.

 

4. Tarapex 2008.

The society has decided to hold their November monthly meeting at Tarapex with an open invitation to all societies for their members to attend. Speakers will be advised in due course.  By now entry forms should have been in (they were due 30 June) and your entries are required no later than 1 November.  If you require further details contact the Secretary, Tarapex 2008, P 0 Box 7129, New Plymouth or email tarapex@xtra.co.nz

 

5.  The Late Ernie Leppard - an Appreciation

This is an extract from an appreciation of Ernie Leppard by Derek Diamond.  Ernie passed away on the last day of 2007.  He had two hobbies - the history of the Sherwood Rangers (his own Regiment in WWII) and the philatdy of New Zealand. The interest in New Zealand was unexpected as he never visited these shores nor did he have any family connections. However, his wartime exploits . gave birth to this interest to the great good fortune of the New Zealand Society of Great Britain.

The story he told Derek was that arriving in Berlin in 1945 (having had several of his tanks destroyed en route from Normandy) as a non-smoker, he traded his accumulation of cigarettes for a New Zealand stamp collection, which turned out to be almost valueless as they were all stuck down. From this highly inauspicious beginning, Ernie built up one of the world's most diverse and broad-­ranging collection of New Zealand stamps which he delighted in sharing with members. Derek cannot recall even one meeting in the last ten years when Ernie was not only present but had something of real interest to display together with pertinent comments.

 

6. Exhibition Sheet Protectors

These are available from the Philatelic Youth Council. The protectors are made from oriented polypropylene and measure approximately 290 x 255mm. They are side opening for easy use, quite stiff and display well. Prices include GST and postage within New Zealand. Available in packs of 25 @$15.00 or 100 @ $50.00. Write to Philatelic Youth Council, PO Box 2979, Auckland, including a cheque with your order.

 

7. Congratulations                                                         .                .

To Gerald Ellott, Vice President of the Society who was honoured in the Queen's Birthday list with the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to philately, and to another of our Vice Presidents, Robin Startup, who was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists recently.  Both these awards were well deserved and the Society's congratulations are extended to both recipients.

 

8. New Members

There was several new members during the past month. Royal Lines congratulates and welcomes Harold Hyde, Paul Yap, Joanne Blyth, Margaret Ingley and Lewis Beale, all from New Zealand, to the society.

 

9. Subscriptions - Change of Rebate time

You will find some changes contained on your invoice, but the most important relates to the rebate

period. This now ends on the 31st of July, not the 31st August as previously.  If you wish to take the

opportunity to save then make sure you return your remittance by 31 July.