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This newsletter follows the March 2026 NZPF meeting.

Societies Matter

I thought I should head this “Society Matters” but have done an intended swap around.

Leading up to the March Federation meeting I was looking at the Incorporated Societies website seeing which societies have redone their constitutions, which have de-registered and who were outstanding. Suffice it to say, there were societies in every category, so I hope you’ve got it all sorted out. There will, I’m sure, be those of you now redoing banking signatories and the like – it’s all rather a painful business. I believe that it was government’s intention that all societies now have better financial oversight and other processes in place.

Some of the delegates at our meeting were concerned about the falling number of members attending meetings and the lack of new members joining.

There is also a perceived problem with the reduced number of traditional stamp dealers. Whilst stamp shops just about disappeared in the 1990’s with the advent of internet trading and Trade Me, the number of virtual traders has sky rocketed. So that is another generational divide. Some of us older collectors like to pore through dealer’s stock and attend auction sales whilst the more ‘modern’ collector might access material online on an item-by-item basis.

Personally, I put my energies into my local society, to try new things to retain the membership we have and to recruit new collectors. Some of these are returning to the hobby whilst others are new to philately. All need the support of the membership. At our recent event we made a more serious attempt to connect with like-minded societies – historical and genealogical. The joint presentations we held were especially well received.

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 […]