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 2

 

March 2008

1.  March Meeting – IMPORTANT CHANGES – TIME & NEW VENUE

 

The next meeting will be the combined meeting with the WELLINGTON PHILATELIC SOCIETY ON

MONDAY 24 MARCH commencing at 7.30pm. It will be held at that Society's rooms on the FIRST

FLOOR, ANVIL HOUSE, 138 WAKEFIELD STREET, WELLINGTON (opp. Michael Fowler Centre).

The doors will be manned from 7.20pm.

Note: as the meeting is at a different venue, the Library will not be open as usual

 

Programme: Business

Items of Interest

Speaker: John Kersel on New Zealand Airmails 1934 to 1947

 

With a strong interest in this aspect of philately, John has assembled a collection of first flight covers and ephemera from four privately owned airline companies - Air Travel (NZ) Limited, East Coast Airways, Cook Strait Airways and Union Airways. The operation of East Coast Airways and Cook Strait Airways was taken over by Union Airways and at a later date Air Travel and Union Airways was taken over by the government to form New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC). So come along and experience the trials, tribulations and successes of the early days of commercial flying.

 

2.         February Meeting

Members were asked to show their items of interest along with their contributions to tonight's topic, Transportation.

 

First up, President Adam Miller after welcoming those attending, brought newspapers (courtesy of the Medical Council of NZ) - Wanganui Chronicle of 17 December 1872 with 1d brown FFQ, and 8 February 1873 with 1/2d Newspaper, both addressed to Wellington. For transport, he had a frame of NZ transport themed advertising covers including various oil companies (Atlantic, BP, Europa) and from auto garages. Brian Vincent showed some USA and GB  stamps depicting futuristic transport, some space shuttle stamps, four Apollo Recovery Ship covers, a Bhutan cover with a 3D stamp of the lunar rover and a set of Bhutan stamps for Apollo 11.

 

Doug Tennant had several items of interest including a cover from Riga, Latvia in 1919 and early Soviet Union covers including one from Alma Ata in 1935 with an airship stamp to tie in the transportation theme. This was by way of a set of black & white postcards for Shackleton's Imperial Transantarctic Expedition 1914-17. These depicted the 'Aurora' and also featured the dog teams used for transportation. There were also cards from a Belgian Antarctic expedition, part of a set of 164 promoted by a Brussels company. Other covers included one from Bath 1856, a Liverpool Ship Letter marking and reg. covers to the USSR with labels 'Retour/interdit/timbres-postes' in green. This material will feature in the next sale.

Neil Fenwick had a set of 3 covers featuring the 65 CAL stamps issued during the past 12 months. His transportation theme did not include covers but stamps. There were seven pages of stamps from the British Isles depicting just about every means of transport from Armadas, to Viking ships and including donkeys, camels, double decker buses, Santa Claus, life boats, hydrofoils and sand yachts and even include the local postman! Neil ended with a small selection of covers including 2 from the USA featuring the Pony Express.

Bob Watson had several album pages of the US Transportation coils of the 1980's & 1929's together with a display of ephemera of railways in the United States. Covers included an 1888 US - NZ cover with two 15c Webster banknote stamps. Bob asks if anyone can supply information on the addressee, J H  Spencer & Co in Christchurch?  A cover to NZ in 1943 had the address covered with a label 'Returned to Sender by Censor'. presumably in the US.

Des Hurley regaled the meeting with a portrayal of the Northern Shipping Company's annual summer cruises 1904-1908. These were a 9 day cruise from Auckland to Doubtless Bay and back on the SS Ngapuhi, taking in Great Barrier Island, Whangarei, the Bay of Islands, Whangaroa, Mangonui and returning via Kawau and Waiwera. Much activity was seen on these cruises including visiting Whangarei Falls by buggy, climbing Flagstaff Hill at Russell, visiting a local fish cannery (closed in 1906) and at night, dancing in local halls. Also included were visits to kauri forests, sending cables overseas at the cable station at Mangonui, with the cruise ending with a regatta for both crew and passengers, all for 7 to 10 pounds. To advertise the cruises the company produced two sets of 12 numbered postcards, one with red and one with blue inscriptions. Many of the photos were taken by Henry Winkelmann a well known Auckland photographer, and some by publishers Jones & Coleman.

 

3.        A Generous Bequest

David Jarvis was a long-standing and active local member of the Society, and made a Life Member in 2007. His passion was the stamps and postal history of his native Britain and his library reflected this. In.

his will, David left his extensive library of books, journals and auction catalogues to our Society. Nearly ninety new items between 1896 and 2007 will find a place on our shelves, including such titles as Earee's classic 1905 two volume Album Weeds, the GB Journal from 1965 to 2007 and A History of the Adhesive Stamps of the British Isles (Wright & Creeke, 1899). All will be stamped showing their provenance, as a permanent record of David’s philatelic interests and his generosity.  Items duplicating those already held will be offered through our postal bid sale in the near future.

 

4.         Tarapex 2008 

This National Exhibition, is to be held in November this ys:ar, at the TSB Stadium, Mason Drive, New Plymouth. Entry forms will need to be in by the 30 June 2008 and entries by 1 November. Further information can be had from the Secretary, Tarapex 2008, P 0 Box 7129, New Plymouth or email - tarapex@xtra.co.nz

 

5.         Monthly Meetings

These are the scheduled meetings and topics for this year. Make a note in your diary.

 

24 March

John Kersel on New Zealand Airlines & Airmails 1934 to 1947.

Joint meeting with Wellington Philatelic Society

8 April

TBA

13 May

Mark Jurisich on Polar Philately

3 June

New Zealand Post. Joint meeting with Hutt Valley Philatelic Society

8 July

Adam Miller, President’s Night

12 August

Patrick Brownsey on Ferns

9 September

Don Mee on Samoa. Joint meeting with We1lingtonPhilatelic Society

14 October

Annual General Meeting

4 November

Joint meeting with Hutt Valley Philatelic Society, topic TBA

9 December

Christmas function

 

6.         New Members

There was one new member during the past month, Michael Howard from New Zealand. Royal Lines welcomes the new member to our society.

 

7.         Volume IX

If you have not already done so, don't forget to order your copy of the award winning Postage Stamps of New Zealand Volume IX. Priced at $140.00 plus packaging and postage this volume, the latest in the handbook series, covers all aspects of postal stationery. (The office has recently noticed some members have sent in another order for this publication but previously had ordered and been sent a copy. Please check your library to make sure you are not double ordering). Contact the office for details and an order form.

 

8.         Postal Sale

May 15th will be the final day for receiving bids for this sale.

 

9. Badges

If you missed the note about the proposed members badges in last month's newsletter, please read on. Council are considering the idea of having member's badges produced, for sale to members. These would be in different colours to reflect the length of membership (in 10 year bands), with special ones supplied gratis to Fellows, Honorary and Life Members. Council would like feedback from members on this proposal. Contact the office by letter, fax or email. We would appreciate your thoughts.

10. Miscellaneous

Never say the mail doesn’t get through. From a member comes this story. He had successfully bid for a number of items in the last postal sale and collected them from his mailbox in due course except one stamp was missing. He then contacted the office by email informing them of the missing item and asked for this to be investigated. The office told him all the stamps had been posted and they were at a loss to explain why one did not arrive. Some time later the member received a phone call from a container cleaning service asking if he had lost a stamp in the mail. Somewhat mystified by this out of the blue contact he inquired as to how it had been found in a container. Apparently this firm was responsiJ51e. for cleaning the NZ Post bulk containers and they had found a very damp envelope with a barely legible address but had taken the time to seek the recipient. Seems this was one that got away on NZ Post but fortunately thanks to the cleaning firm and the Royal's sales team in Wellington who package material so well, the stamp was in perfect condition and has been added to the member's collection.

 

From David Galt, President of the Royal Numismatic Society of NZ comes an invitation to hear Professor Mark Stocker from the University of Otago speak on the designs of Sir Bertram Mackennal, the English

stamp and coin designer, Wednesday 27 August at Turnbull House. There will be no charge for this evening. If you are interested in coinage as well as stamps this would be an excellent evening and whilst August is still some time away, reminders will be published.

And from the Mexico-Elmhurst Philatelic Society International- they are looking for new members interested in collecting Mexico. The largest society in the world devoted to Mexico, it was started in 1950 and produces a quarterly journal, has an extensive library and holds auctions, circuits and expertisation. Contact; Michael Roberts, MEPSI Treasurer, 5881 W. 75TH Street, Los Angeles, CA 90045-01706, USA. email atmepsi@ca.rr.com

 

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.