New Zealand letter 1874 Chalon and Sideface

Postal services in New Zealand have existed since at least 1831, when the

Postmaster-General of New South Wales The Postmaster-General of New South Wales was a position in the government of the colony of New South Wales. This portfolio managed the postal department of the New South Wales Government and was in charge of all postal and communications servi ...

deputed a Bay of Islands merchant to receive and return mail. Governor

William Hobson Captain William Hobson (26 September 1792 – 10 September 1842) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New Zealand. He was a co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi. Hobson was dispatched from London in July 1 ...

issued an ordinance covering postal matters, although the British government retained control until 1848. In these initial years, only a small number of post offices were established. Postal services expanded greatly from the mid-1850s, with the Local Posts Act of 1856 allowing Provincial Governments to establish post offices, and the Post Office Act of 1858, which re-organized postal services under a Postmaster-General. The

New Zealand Post Office The New Zealand Post Office (NZPO) was a government department of New Zealand until 1987. It was previously (from 1881 to 1959) named the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department (NZ P&T). As a government department, the New Zealand Post Office ...

continued to operate as a government department until 1987, when postal services were re-organized as

New Zealand Post NZ Post ( mi, Tukurau Aotearoa), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommunica ...

, a state-owned enterprise.

Postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

s have been issued in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

since around 18 to 20 July 1855 with the "

Chalon head Chalon may refer to: Culture *Chalon people, a Native American tribe of California * Chalon language, an Ohlone language spoken by the Chalon people Places * Chalon, Isère, formerly Châlons, in France's Isère ''département'' * Le Chalon, in t ...

" stamps figuring

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. The design was based on a full face portrait of the Queen in her state robes at the time of her coronation in 1837, by

Alfred Edward Chalon Alfred Edward Chalon (15 February 1780 – 3 October 1860) was a Swiss-born British portraitist. He lived in London where he was noticed by Queen Victoria. Biography Alfred Chalon was born in Geneva from a father who soon was hired as profes ...

. The stamps were initially hand cut from sheets, but from 1862 on, these sheets started being fed through automatic perforating machines. The Chalon heads were used until 1874 when the

lithographed Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

sideface stamps in various designs replaced them.

Universal one penny postage

On 1 January 1901, New Zealand introduced one penny universal postage from New Zealand to any country in the world willing to deliver them. Australia, the United States, France and Germany would not accept such letters, fearful of having to reduce their own postal charges to match. This also halved the cost of mailing letters within New Zealand. While concern was expressed that Post Office revenues would fall, mail volumes increased sharply and by 1902 any losses had been recovered.

First stamp vending machine

New Zealand was the first country in the world to prototype and install

stamp vending machine A stamp vending machine (SVM) is a mechanical, electrical or electro-mechanical device which can be used to automatically vend postage stamps to users in exchange for a pre-determined amount of money, normally in coin. Most SVMs were positioned ...

s; one was installed in the General Post Office, Wellington in 1905.Robinson, p. 179.

Postal stationery

The first items of

postal stationery A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related servi ...

to be issued by New Zealand were postcards on 1 November 1876.Startup, R. M. (1966) ''Postal Stationery of New Zealand''. The next items of postal stationery to be issued were

newspaper wrapper In philately a wrapper is a form of postal stationery which pays the cost of the delivery of a newspaper or a periodical. The wrapper is a sheet of paper, large enough to wrap around a folded or rolled newspaper and with an imprinted stamp to pay t ...

s on 1 April 1878.

Lettercard In philately, a lettercard or letter card is a postal stationery item consisting of a folded card with a prepaid imprinted stamp. That it is folded over gives the writer twice as much room for the message compared with a postal card. The messag ...

s were first issued on 1 January 1895, registered envelopes on 21 June 1898, envelopes on 4 June 1899 and air letter sheets or aerogrammes on 17 November 1941.

Deregulation

The postal system in New Zealand was

deregulated Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

on 1 April 1998, meaning several different independent mail companies now exist. But in practice the state-owned

NZ Post NZ Post ( mi, Tukurau Aotearoa), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommunica ...

still delivers nearly all letters.

Other carriers

Independent New Zealand post companies which issue their own stamps include

DX Mail DX may refer to: In arts and entertainment * ''DX'' (album), a 2013 album by Friendzone * D-Generation X, a professional wrestling stable * Design Exchange, a museum of design in Toronto * '' Deus Ex'', a series of video games ** ''Deus Ex'' ...

, Fastway Post, New Zealand Mail and

Petes Post Pete or Petes or ''variation'', may refer to: People * Pete (given name) * Pete (nickname) * Pete (surname) Fictional characters * Pete (Disney), a cartoon character in the ''Mickey Mouse'' universe * Pete the Pup (a.k.a. 'Petey'), a charac ...

References

Sources

* Campbell Paterson Ltd: ''Loose Leaf Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps''.
Encyclopaedia of Postal Authorities
* Laurie Franks: ''All the Stamps of New Zealand''. * * Robin Gwynn: ''Collecting New Zealand Stamps''.
Plate reconstructing by Roly Runciman.
*

Stanley Gibbons The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...

Ltd: various catalogues. * Rossiter, Stuart; Flower, John. ''The Stamp Atlas''. London: Macdonald, 1986.

External links

Australia and New Zealand Revenue and Railway Fee Stamp Catalogue.

Current and Upcoming NZ Post Issues

Historical Issues, from NZ Post

Register of Postal Operators

New Zealand Stamp Images

New Zealand Society of Great Britain
{{PostalhistoryOceania Postal system of New Zealand History of New Zealand Philately of New Zealand