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Vol. 46 No. 2 March 2007

1. March Meeting - IMPORTANT CHANGES

The next meeting will be the combined meeting with the WELLINGTON PHILATELIC SOCIETY ON 26 MARCH commencing at 7.30pm.
It will be held at the BETTY CAMPBELL CENTRE, HARBOUR CITY CENTRE, PANAMA STREET ENTRANCE.
The doors will be manned from 7.15pm.

Note: As the meeting is at a different venue the library will not be open as usual.

Programme: Speaker. Hilton Dickens on Private Postal Operators

Hilton recently completed a full and detailed handbook and catalogue on these stamps and the programme this evening will cover this aspect of philately.

2. February meeting

This well attended meeting commenced with a strong bibliographic tone. Brian Vincent announced the arrival of the first two copies of Volume 9 - The Postal Stationery of New Zealand, and had one copy on display. And a quality, full colour publication it is, continuing the long and justifiably proud tradition of our handbooks since 1938. This one is a testament to the life's work of Robert Samuel. If you haven't as yet ordered your copy, hurry and contact Sue at the office - remember we have only printed 500 copies. The pre-publication special offer has expired and it is now $140.00 plus P&P to members.

Adam Miller then displayed our new Library List. It is 100 A4 pages, incorporating our books and monographs, journals and exhibition publications as before, but now also grey literature (especially Xeroxed exhibits and collections) and miscellaneous papers, specialised and general auction catalogues and many other dealer publications. There is an author index, and the core text is additionally supplied on a CD in Adobe Acrobat format to aid in searching. Members price is $25.00 plus P&P of NZ$3.00, Australia $11.00, USA $18.00 and Rest of World $20.00 (all NZ Dollars). The CD is not being sold separately.

Adam also had his own brand new publication on display - Stamps on Music - The World-wide Catalogue & Handbook of Stamps issued under Copyright Acts. For more information on this you can go to www.78rpm.net.nz

Items of Interest

Adam displayed some Tucks gramaphone record postcards of 1929, which had 4" 78rpm records glued to the face of obsolete stock. In this case a group of four showing Queen Mary's Doll's House from the Wembley Exhibition. He also had two 1950's 45rpm postcards each with a lV2d. copyright stamp on the reverse. Ray Randle showed some media reports of a seizure of counterfeit New Zealand stamps. Des Hurley had a WWII artist's cover, that appeared to have been done by a trained cartoonist, plus some Maori-theme postcards.

A visitor, George Boraman, showed an Edwardian novelty mechanical postcard, which featured a boy whose hat could be raised and lowered. Sue de Lange showed the new Huttpex promotional 45c stamps. Geoff Rickards showed a series of items ex Jim Brodie, that will be in an upcoming Society postal sale. They were all French in origin and included three Red Cross stamp booklets for 1962-64, mourning covers, Pneumatic post envelopes and telegrams, WWI soldier cards plus some advertising covers. David Jarvis showed the latest GB issues, notably the Beatles set, and Brian finished up with a 1906 South African postcard referring in its message to the start of the rugby tour.

Speaker of the Evening, Bill Main – Postcards

Bill started with a potted history of his collecting life. He sold his collection of Finnish stamps in blocks of 4 (the result of a long exchange correspondence) in 1950 and purchased a camera, and has been

addicted to photography and photographs ever since. His early job teaching photography led him to seek local material and cameras as teaching aids. The dearth of information about our early photographers led him into research, and he has continued in this mode ever since.

His first publication was in the 1970's 'Wellington through a Victorian lens'. As interest in early New Zealand photographs rose, the market climbed and he moved into collecting postcards. This was a sideline in the photograph gallery he had in Ghuznee Street at the time. He started buying cards by New Zealand photographers, including Muir & Moodie, Zachariah ('Zak') and Thomas Pringle, plus cards showing New Zealand flora. He also produced his own series of postcards from photographs, including a series for a town in Holland (from negatives he rescued from the tip!) which were so popular over there that they financed the other series. Much of his photographic collection is now in Te Papa, where he worked for a time ensuring it was correctly catalogued.

Bill has more recently started to exhibit his postcards, including Thomas Pringle's Maori ones, and a 2-frame one on the four main centres around 1906-07. He has also published several books including a guide to New Zealand postcards 'Wish you were here', and another on people postcards 'Facing an Era'. He is now collecting the more modern postcard issuers, including Gladys Goodall, the A.H.& A.W. Reed stable, and those freebies from various cafes and other places around town. His next book will be on 'Zak'.

Ray Staal proposed the vote of thanks on behalf of those present, for what was a very enjoyable and informative talk and display.

3 Programme for the year (to July)

26 March Combined meeting with the Wellington Philatelic Society. Speaker Hilton Dickens on Private Postal Operators

10 April Neil Fenwick on 1898 Pictorials - some aspects of this issue.

8 May Richard Smolnicki on Perfins

5 June Combined meeting with the Hutt Valley Philatelic Society. New Zealand Post

10 July President's Night. Various newly mounted pages from several of Brian's collections

Also upcoming is a special combined meeting with the Wellington Society immediately after Huttpex when Paul Wales from Christchurch will display his splendid collection of 1970 Pictorials.

4. Volume IX

As noted, two advance copies were received from the printer. The remainder are now on the water and expected to arrive at the end of February. Whilst the discount is no longer available, you may still order through the office. In colour for the first time, it is a superb addition to the handbook series.

5 Recent new Members

There were a number of new members signed up over the holiday break. We wish you all a long and philatelically rewarding association with the Royal. New members are: Kaler Silla from Estonia, Arthur Willis from Australia, Alistair Watson from America, Alan Wise and Brian Stallard from New Zealand.

6 Publications Still Available

Still available from the office are the following publications. If you do not have these then what better time to make an addition to your library.

Mails by Rail in New Zealand - The story of the Railway Travelling Post Offices.
By Robin Startup and Albert Johnstone. 206 pages. Members price $75.00 plus P&P.

Bibliography of New Zealand Cinderellas and Bibliography of New Zealand Military Postal History -
Both by Des Hurley. $15.00 each plus P&P.

Index to the New Zealand Stamp Collector - Update 1995-2004. Editor Adam Miller.
Available at $15.00 plus P&P.

Special offer. Order the update and receive a copy of the original Index of the Stamp Collector 1919-1994 for $40.00 plus P&P.

7. In General

Received at the office is a letter from Marc Landois from France. Marc's interest is collecting posted covers (not FDC's) and wishes to know if any of our members would be interested in swapping these envelopes. His address is Marc Landois Le Plessis, Grandcamp 27270, France.

And a thank you to those who replied to our request for a quarter inch reel to reel tape recorder. The problem has been solved.

The newsletter is always happy to publish any items of interest you may have so please either fax material to the Editor on 04 971 8537 or email to the Society's office. As usual, we reserve the right to publish.