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This short newsletter follows the December 2025 AGM.

A Blast from the Past

I was recently given a big bag of stamps on paper from some adventure tour operator friends who have retired. They were waiting to give it to someone who cared and along I came! The stamps come from 30 years of office correspondence and literally from all corners of the globe including Antarctica, Greenland, Malta, Dutch Antilles and Iceland, to name but a few. Having sorted out the Iceland the next job was to soak them all off. When did you last do any quantity of soaking-off? But what a blast! I had to find my blotting paper, last used years ago. Then I found how back-breaking it was, leaning over the bathroom sink. No matter – what a pleasure! Looking at each stamp in turn, seeing where they are from and what the subject is that’s shown on the stamp. It is such a mainstay of the hobby, but I had almost forgotten how it’s done. This reflects how few stamps I receive in the mail that I want to keep.

Annual General Meeting 2025

Minutes have been separately circulated and have gone to society secretaries. The main points to report are:

• The levy per society member remains at $3 for this year but there may be a modest rise next year.
• The accounts were approved and these have now been lodged with the New Zealand Companies Office.
• The new constitution was approved at the AGM and that too has been lodged and approved by the Companies Office.
• The president and secretary (David Loe and Jeff Long respectively) were elected for a further 12 months though […]
  

This newsletter follows the 27 September 2025 NZPF executive meeting.

Philately in the news

This subject can be a two edged sword in that not all publicity is good news. However, on balance, I do believe that our hobby needs to be talked about. So, I was pleased to see in the 16th August edition of the Listener, a well- balanced article on hobbies. Entitled “Hot Pursuits” and written by Paul Little, this article examines how hobbies are thriving in the digital age and this includes philately.

Several members have sent me a link to the Stuff news report on the piece entitled “Forged postage stamps: seller must refund collectors $234,000”. Our friends in the NZ Stamp Dealers Association assisted on this case and last year helped removing the perpetrator Jaques Preiss from Trade Me (trading as Aussiegirl23). Much of the fake material was Italian States, German WWII occupation issues, Italian airmail and WWII overprints and dodgy overprint material in general.

As this newsletter goes to press, we now know the results from Mowbray’s latest auction that had a serious amount of ‘special’ material. This is probably a good weathervane for the health of the hobby where good material continues to realise good results.

UPU material

We have now concluded the sale of the UPU material so kindly gifted by NZ Post last year. The funds have been transferred to the New Zealand National Philatelic Trust (NZNPT). We ask societies to apply to NZPT for financial assistance towards projects they may have. In recent communication from the Federation Secretary, Jeff Long, there was a list of projects the Trust has provided support for in the past to give your society ideas of what they can ask for funding for. I repeat […]

Sue at 2018 Armistice exhibition in Dunedin presenting an award to Norman Banfield in her role as Chairman of the jury.

Album Closed- Sue Claridge

As I was about to finish this newsletter we heard from our delegate in the South – Paul van Herpt – the very sad news that Sue Claridge had passed away at the age of 69.

This is a shock to all of us that knew Sue, and let’s be honest, most philatelists in New Zealand knew Sue. She had a long and distinguished time in various roles in the Philatelic Youth Council and there are many younger philatelists who benefitted from her wisdom. She also had many roles in Christchurch PS including president, she was a philatelic judge and only last year was the NZ commissioner to the Canberra exhibition. She had a very wide collecting interest including included military, medical, ophthalmology, hospitals, Florence Nightingale, Edith Cavell and World War I.

Sue served on Federation for a long time and gave talks to many member societies. She had only retired as a theatre nurse last year. Outside philately she was a very keen gardener and in her professional life was secretary to the NZ nurses’ organisation for a very long time.

Federation Awards

It is always good to give shout-outs, especially to friends. So it was especially pleasing to see so many deserving applications sent in for the panel to consider and no doubt a few more to follow as the closing date had not arrived. Over the next few newsletters, I hope to show all the awardees being presented. It is good to put a face to a name.