Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand
BOOK REVIEWS
Publisher: Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand. P 0 Box 1269, Wellington.
A4 Spiral Bound. 107 pages. ISSN 11743821.
The Kiwi
Journal of the New Zealand Society of Great Britain.
Volume 47 No.3, May 1998
There are a huge number of publications about New Zealand stamps and Postal History. Unfortunately, one of the major problems for Editors and Researchers is in locating publications on particular subjects due to the lack of effective indexing.
This publication is Number One in a new Bibliographic Series which uses the resources of the library of the RPSNZ to collate information.
The book is a mine of information about sources although, obviously, users have to have access to a library to actually obtain copies of articles cited. Subjects covered range from Anglicans in Aotearoa to Gramophone Royalties and Whoppa Swoppa Labels.
I must admit to a little confusion as my copy contained an errata
slip for the index on Page 3 but Page 3 contained no index. Nevertheless
this is an important contribution to the effort to make information
accessible and is to be commanded.
The Mail Coach (Journal of the Postal History Society of New Zealand.
Volume 35 October 1998
This first issue of a bibliographic series from the RPSNZ is an extremely useful source of information for collectors of Cinderellas who are searching for sources of background information. It is also useful for authors who could be unaware that an article that they are planning to write has already been fully covered.
Dr Hurley, himself a writer in this field, has produced this publication by searching through the publications held in the library of the RPSNZ. By the use of groupings and cross references he makes the search process for information reasonably straight forward.
However, the addition in any later printings of an index of the subheadings with page numbers would be beneficial to the user.
Many of the articles have appeared in NZ Philatelic Journals but Dr Hurley makes special reference to The Kiwi produced by the New Zealand Society of Great Britain for a source of Cinderella articles. Copies are available in the PHSNZ library for students who want the details.
The price that Cinderellas are fetching at auctions at this time means that collectors should know as much about the items as possible. This publication , added to the PHSNZ library, will make a search for information much more efficient.
John Watts