NEWSLETTER OF THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY OF NZ
ROYAL LINES
www.rpsnz.org.nz
Vol. 47 No 10 November
2008
1. November Meeting - IMPORTANT CHANGES
The November meeting will be held as part of Tarapex
on Saturday the 8 November. It will be upstairs in the Gallery at the TSB STADIUM,
Note: As the meeting is at a different venue the library will not be open as
usual.
Programme: Speakers: Adam Miller with the topic of 'Stamps on
Music:'
and Allan Berry on 'New Zealand Militia Mail' and 'WWII Patriotic Envelopes'.
The penultimate meeting of the year is part of Tarapex and we have lined up two
well known speakers, President Adam Miller and Vice President and recently
appointed Life Member Allan Berry. This meeting is an opponunity for our
members outside of Wellington to participate, so if you are attending Tarapex
then make sure you're in the upstairs gallery at 1.30pm.
2. October Meeting
As normal at this time of year, this meeting was the Annual General Meeting of
the Society. President, Adam Miller taking the Chair, opened the meeting
sharply at 7.30pm. After welcoming those present the Meeting stood in a minutes
silence in memory of recent Fellow George Braham who passed away recently. The
Secretary then read the previous Annual General Meeting minutes before Adam
introduced the Annual Report.
Again this year, this appeared in the September issue of The New Zealand Stamp
Collector as part of the successful cost cutting measures introduced. These measures together with some outstanding results especially in
Postal Sales has seen a large increase in the surplus over last year. As
Council has done during the past few years continual
discussion and implementation as to generating income and reducing costs is
reflected in this year's Financial Statements. Nevertheless Council is always
willing to consider ideas from members in this regard. There has been a
continuation of the combined meetings with both
The following Officers of the Society were elected at the meeting.
President: Adam Miller
Vice Presidents: Norman Banfield, Allan
Berry, Robin Gwynn, Robin Startup, Gerald Ellott, Don Mee, Brian Vincent
Treasurer: John Rees
Secretary: Wayne Kitching
Council: Sue de Lange, Bob Watson, Doug
Tennant, Geoff Rickards Kendons
Hon Auditor: Kendons
As is customary and in accordance with the By Laws, appointments will be made
at the next Council meeting and published in the December Royal Lines.
The meeting concluded with a glass of wine, some nibbles and some very
interesting material provided by Council members as a silent display.
3. New Life Members
At the Annual General Meeting three well known members were made Life Members.
They were Allan Berry, Gerald Ellott and Robert Odenweller. Allan has been a
member since 1970, Gerald joined in 1966 and Robert in 1962, a remarkable total
of 126 years combined membership! Congratulations go to Allan, Gerald and Robert.
4. Reminder Marcel Stanley Competition
You will recall Council made a decision to hold this
competition over for 2008 and transfer it to the Manawatu Convention in June
2009. Which means there will be no competition this coming December. However,
the decision to broaden the base by opening the criteria to all clubs/societies
in the Central District region should ensure the continuation of this
competition. Further details will be published next year.
5. Recent new Members
No new members joined up during the past month but as noted in the Annual
Report, a pleasant, if modest statistic to emerge from the 2007-08 year, is the
fact overall membership of the Society made a net gain of nine during the past
twelve months. This arrests the trend in the last few years for the membership
total to steadily shrink, and hopefully we can continue on this upward course.
6. Postal
The November sale closes at 5pm on Thursday, 13 November. Because the next Meeting is being
held at Tarapex, Doug Tennant has kindly offered to be at the office on the
evening of Tuesday, 11 November for members to view Lots. If you wish to take
advantage of this offer, you will need to contact the office by 2pm on the
Tuesday.
NOTE: Fax bids for the November Sale. The office had a problem with faxes sent
betWeen 29 September and 8 October. If anyone faxed a bid through during that
period and you have not heard from us, please resend your bid.
7. Tarapex 2008
On the Saturday afternoon, the Society is to hold its November meeting at
Tarapex. This will be in the upstairs Gallery facilities and the speakers will
be President, Adam Miller and Vice President Allan Berry. There is an open
invitation to all societies for their members to attend. As for the exhibition
itself, if you require further information contact the Secretary, Tarapex 2008,
8. Subscriptions - Have you renewed yours?
There are still about 50 unpaid subscriptions. Would members please check their
newsletters to see if there is an indication that their sub ($60) is still
unpaid. The subscription payments returns have been really good this year but
we would like to have the outstanding ones paid before Christmas please.
9. September Meeting
As promised last month the following is an excerpt
from the September joint meeting at which Don Mee was the speaker. Patrick
Brownsey welcomed those present to the joint meeting and remafked on the good
turnout, reinforcing the concept of these meetings. There were some items of
interest including Ray Randle with a wide selection of material from NZ Post
for the Centenary of the Main Tmnk Line. Anne showed some recent UK issues
including the Farnborough Air Show and the hand-over to London from the Beijing
Olympics. Pauline showed a range of newly acquired stamps including UN
disability issues - sign language, Braille and accessibility logos. Sue spoke
on her recent visit to the UK including the Swinpex fair at which 46 dealers
were present, and Sunstamp in Brisbane. She showed a valiety of items acquired
recently. Bob Watson had a couple of items relating to US including a large
cover with postage paid return receipt, registered and a post price of $32.45.
Both Brian and David had some material from
And so to the
speaker for the evening, Don Mee.
Don is recognised as one of New Zealand's foremost expert on Samoan stamps and
postal history. He explained why he first became interested in Samoa. It has,
for a very small country in the Pacific; one of the most varied stamp issuing
histories aided in no small way by the political changes that have occurred.
Initially a 'kingdom of sorts' it became affected by the growing interest in
the Pacific of Britain,
In the 1830s Missionary mail was sent via
In August 1914 thirteen hundred Kiwis landed, grabbed the post office and
overprinted stamp stocks with 'GRI' and sterling currency. There are a
considerable number of 'forgeries' or 'unofficial' overprints. Don showed four
frames of material and also spoke of other material in his and other
collections to give context to the items on display. His depth of knowledge
about the subject - from both a philatelic and historic perspective was
evident. This was alluded to in the vote of thanks proposed by Ray Randle and
warmly applauded by everyone.
(Reprinted from the Wellington Philatelic Society's
Newsletter with grateful thanks. Ed)
10. In General
Mr Jack Ogof from Pennsylvania, USA is looking for a contact in New Zealand to
exchange stamps. He sounds a little desparate as in his letter he notes his
last contact in this area of the world passed away some five years ago! He is looking for complete sets both mint and
used and souvenir items. In return he can swap for the same from Australia,
Canada, Netherlands and GB as well as USA. His address is 1271 Woodhaven Drive,
White Haven, PA 18661, United States of America. Interested? Drop him a line.