Stephen says –

Covid 19
With Auckland having moved to Alert Level 3 from 14 Feb – and then Level 2 on 17 Feb, before moving back to Level 1 on 22 Feb 2021, and then on 22 Feb back to Level 3, to Level 2 on 7 March before returning to Level 1 on 12 March – it then became the challenge for Wellington with a move to Level 2 on 23 June before returning to Level 1 on 29 June. Thankfully we have not had further challenges.
This reminds us all that until we get vaccinated there is the need to follow the guidelines of scanning, wearing a face covering on public transport and washing your hands.

The global postal supply chain is still challenged, with NZ Post advertising some 30 countries as at 16 August where mail is still suspended from New Zealand – Covid-19-international-network-outbound, and about the same number for inbound mail to New Zealand – Covid-19-international-network-inbound
The NZ Post website information has not been updated recently which suggests no change.

Even when service is available, constraints on the number of flights operating means there is restricted capacity leading to delays of mail departing New Zealand. At 12 August NZ Post advised three working days. In addition, significant international processing and delivery delays are occurring in some European destinations and Canada. – international-delivery-updates#sending-delays
NZ Post are working to have most parcels, once received by NZ Post, delivered within 7 working days.

Federation Meetings
The first 2021 meeting was held by Zoom on 20 March and the second, also by Zoom, on 17 July.

Federation Awards
Unfortunately, reminders were not sent to members seeking nominations for awards. We believe such awards are important and the executive agreed to extend the cut off for nominations for the 2021 NZPF awards. The closing date for submissions is October 31. The criteria for the various awards presented by Federation can be found on the NZPF website as well nomination forms. Check philatelic-awards

Federation meeting at Royalpex 2021
A special meeting of NZPF members is to be held at Royalpex 2021 on Saturday 11 September at 3:00pm. While this is intended as a relatively informal meeting, please let us know of items that you would like to have discussed, ideally prior to the meeting.

I can be contacted by email at any time – president@nzpf.org.nz
Stephen Chivers, President

NZPF Website Update

On 6 February the NZPF website went live with the latest version of WordPress. The opportunity was also taken to make numerous changes to the site. All clubs were requested to check the site, and in particular their own club’s web page content. Many who did found something to comment on and changes were made as a result.
If you have any issues with pages or information on the website needing updating please contact webmaster@nzpf.org.nz

List of Stamp Clubs

Earlier this year the publication listing all New Zealand stamp and postcard societies or clubs was updated. A hard copy version was printed but very quickly contact details and other changes made the listing inaccurate. Federation has decided to post the listing on the Website. A printable listing can be downloaded from the page societies-clubs/

We would appreciate hearing of any changes made to the information contained in the listing. Please advise secretary@nzpf.org.nz

New Zealand Post Stamps & Collectables are also in the process of updating the information on their website – nzpost directory-of-stamp-clubs/

It is possible they will link to the Federation listing thus making it doubly important to notify us of any changes made to the information contained in the listing. Please advise secretary@nzpf.org.nz

Club News

The following news items were provided by the delegates at the march and July meetings.

Northern Region

Tim Beach and Chris Keery
At the March executive meeting Chris Keery advised he was stepping down as one of the Northern region delegates. He was thanked for his positive contributions to Federation during his time on the executive.
Auckland Philatelic Society – The society is now without committee member Andrew Dolphin who passed away suddenly in May. He will be missed in New Zealand and overseas for his expertise on New Zealand stamps and remembered for his contribution to the editing of the Campbell Patterson Catalogue for many years.

The AGM formally confirmed Andrew Chessum as secretary (andrew.chessum@gmail.com ). A successful stamp fair and exhibition with the theme of “Olympics” was held in June. The reducing number of stamp dealers in the region is of concern for the revenue of future events. The Red Dot Sales are proving popular with club members and the public.

South Auckland Philatelic Society – A successful stamp fair was held in April with three stamp dealers attending. Saturday afternoon club meetings are well attended by an enthusiastic core of the small membership. Three visitors from other clubs came to talk on Early London Postmarks by Ray Wisbey.

Whangarei Philatelic Society – The annual Northland Combined Meeting was held in June with over 30 people attending the talks by Ross Marshall and Mark Benvie. Visitors came to Whangarei from Auckland, Kerikeri and Kaitaia. Three stamp dealers from out of town were welcomed for a stamp fair in May. In addition, the Wednesday afternoon monthly club meetings have added to the programme, making a busy time for the members.

North Shore Philatelic Society – A new venue for the annual exhibition in October will be the hall at St Joseph’s Church, Taharoto Road, Takapuna. Access is via Dominion Street, off Taharoto Road opposite the soccer fields.

The club won the annual Battle of the Hills competition with the Waikato Philatelic Society recently. The last meeting saw six members provide a display of up to 8 pages they then talked to for the annual Nottingham Philatelic Society Trophy. This was followed up with a workshop to encourage members to put together an exhibit for the Ambury Shield competition.

City of Sails Youth Club – One new member has joined the club in 2021 so have four attending youth. Good meetings held with workshops keeping members entertained while learning about the hobby. Two members have entered Royalpex 2021.

Waikato Philatelic Society – 2021 has seen them try a programme putting greater emphasis on member participation at all meetings. The alphabet letters are gaining more participation and it has been great fun seeing what members choose for their use of the given letter. Short talks by members on their philatelic interests or other hobbies are also very interesting. The last talk was by a member very skilled in woodcarving.

Planning for the annual Ambury Shield is well underway with North Shore the duty society this year. Waikato is hosting the Interclub One Frame competition this year and planning is well underway.

The Circuit book sales are still proving a profitable way for members to sell excess material and for members to top up their collections at low cost. At each meeting they have a small auction of items members have brought along for sale and a “Free Box” is now available at each meeting.
They look forward to the rest of the year, starting with a Scavenger Hunt next meeting which has already attracted a lot of interest, and laughter, at recent meetings.

Postal History Society – Auckland chapter meetings have included William Porter Letters 1784-1865, and a members night with presentations by David Armishaw, David Holmes, Miles Dillon, Neil Hart, Richard Street and Jack Wansbrough.

Central Region

Leigh Gravestock & Paul McTaggart
Major events in the region since the last report
• 17 April – Palmerston North – Central Districts Expo & Convention). This event went according to plan. A report on this successful event is provided below.
• 29 – 30 May –Wellington Regional Stamp Show/NZSDA Stamp Show was held at the Chilton St James School Hall. This included Neville Harris Memorial Inter-club Competition won this year by the Wellington Philatelic Society.

Wanganui Philatelic Society – recent meetings have seen a good response to their 1-page and 4-page competitions. Like several societies Wanganui has decided to drop their PO Box address – the amount of mail does not justify the box fees.
They celebrated the centenary of their re-formation in 1921 with a dinner on 7 August and a stamp and coin fair on 8 August. The dinner was enjoyed by the attendees and the Sunday Fair proved successful.

Manawatu Philatelic Society held a Special General Meeting on 3 February to amend their Rules and Regulations with respect to payment by cheques. With the impending removal of cheques from banks this was no longer a payment method for the Society and as such required expedited change to the Rules. Federation will have to make this change and a motion will be made at the 2021 AGM. Maybe other organisations may wish to check (semi-pun) their rules and regulations for the same impact.

Hastings Stamp Collectors Club – Meetings and newsletter running to schedule. February saw 16 members in attendance. The society is running circuit books. A guest speaker for February was Barbara Caryl bringing over 300 pages on the topic of the Spitfire accumulated by her late husband. Possibly a good topical exhibit could be made from this collection.

Hawkes Bay Philatelic Society – Frances Burton was awarded Life Membership of the Society. Frances has been more than 40 years with the Society and during this time she has been more than active. She was on the Committee of Jubilex Exhibition in 1984 and again served as Treasurer in 2004 Baypex. She was also on the committee in 2014 for the second Baypex National. She has served as treasurer for a total of 15 years! When she stood down as Treasurer in 2015, she still volunteered to continue as a committee member after standing down from the office.

Hutt Valley Philatelic Society – Club meetings proceeding with a good attendance. The Society’s AGM was held on 6 April.

Upper Hutt Stamp Club – AGM was held by the Society on 15 March. It is noted that on average there are 14 people attending meeting from the 2020 year, not a bad effort for a small club. It was noted in the President’s report of 31 December the impact and contribution
Andrew McNiven is having across the Society with newsletter production, library arrangement and Society records management. It is also noted Andrew has been active in acquiring information from all clubs and Societies across NZ for the updated NZPF website. His award by the NZPF was well received and well deserved.
Another active office holder is Colin Braddock who as taken on the roles of Treasurer and Circuit Manager. Well done Colin, although maybe some others could help lighten the load.

Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand –This year the Society is running alternating in-person and Zoom presentations. The first 2021 Zoom presentation was held in March with Paul McTaggart presenting on the New Zealand 1946 Peace Commemorative Issue and several have been held since with a number of their overseas members in attendance. The Zoom meetings are proving popular with members with an average of 30 members attending the presentations this year.
Preparations are underway for the Society hosting Royalpex 2021 in Palmerston North in September. There is good collaboration and assistance from the Manawatu Philatelic Society on planning and preparation for this exhibition.

Wellington Philatelic Society – Attendance at the meetings to date have been lower than normal but nevertheless have been of considerable interest. Members, as always, continue to provide a wide range of material in the ‘items of interest’ and 1-page entries. In terms of the latter they have used a number rather than letter and this has seen some innovative and interesting outcomes. Their meeting in March had the number ‘7’ – seven deadly sins, seventh heaven were some of the ideas suggested.

Southern Region

Sue Claridge & Josh Black
Marlborough Stamp Collectors Club – held its AGM and all positions remained the same. Their 2021 programme started with a good February meeting with members bringing along four of their favourite pages and those members giving a brief talk on them. This was well supported. The Chairman, Josh is working to convince people to put an exhibit together for Royalpex 2021. More new members would be welcome but as yet no one has joined this year.

It was pleasing they had close to 200 people through the Marlborough rooms on their Waitangi Day open day. This included explaining to children what a postcard was which was a bit of an eye opener. I think a few grandparents may have got postcards in the mail the following week.

Quite popular was a fun meeting where members had to judge some exhibits. They had some basic guidelines and were sent to it. I think, more than anything, they looked a lot closer at the stamps than normal so a win-win situation for all concerned. The annual 8-page competition was well attended with a good number of entries put on display. In June our guest speaker Robert Dun gave a very good talk and display on Airmail routes to New Zealand from England.

Nelson Philatelic Society – have been able to move back into their old meeting venue. This is good news. Josh hoped to attend their August meeting to show them Marlborough’s document reader along with Sue Simmonds talking on polar explorers.

It is worth noting that they have a newly elected president and secretary and they have also managed to gain some new members which is always good.

NZ Stamp Collectors Club had an excellent attendance for the talk from NZ Post Allan Hollows in June.

Christchurch Philatelic Society had a good turn-out for the annual club competitions. The society supports some sub-group meetings including a postal history group and a postcard group. The postcard group is re-convening after winter with the first meeting planned for September.
The junior club continues to struggle and may fold if they cannot get any children interested. Kidsfest (a city council) organised event for the July school holidays may attract some new members.

Canpex continues to support local philately and their AGM is planned in the next month or two. There has been little expenditure over the last twelve months.

2021 Collectors Expo 17 April

Report by Colin Dyer

The 59th Central Districts Stamps, Coins & Postcards Expo and Convention hosted by the Manawatu Philatelic Society was an unequivocal success. Held on Sat 17th April in the versatile Palmerston Nth. Community Leisure Centre this year’s show featured 13 individual dealers and traders together with 6 participating Societies presenting an extensive array of material spread over 60 individual sales tables.

Some early browsers appeared prior to the 9.30am opening and when it came to 4pm closing there were still many enthusiasts focussed on last minute purchases. During the day several spot prizes, courtesy of our dealers, were awarded to attendees and the winner of the feature prize, a beautiful 2d Chalon, went to a delighted Robert Winchester from the Hastings Stamp Club.
It was very gratifying to see so many Society and Club members enjoying the material on offer as well as the traditional camaraderie provided which so underpins this annual convention event. An estimated 300 patrons attended including collector colleagues from throughout the lower North Island and from as far away as Tauranga and Christchurch.

The Cafe service provided by the volunteer team from Heartland Lions drew favourable comments and enabled them to achieve a very commendable community fund raiser outcome.

Five different Societies contributed members exhibits to facilitate an attractive and diverse 28 frames of public display.
In prime position, this feature display always attracts considerable public interest and enables us to continue to promote our philatelic hobby to all and sundry.
Two of NZ’s foremost collectors, Brian Vincent and Leigh Gravestock from the Hutt Valley Soc. treated us to quality presentations on “Sikkim” and “NZ Stamp Exhibitions”–acclaimed as two of the best we have had during the last decade.

The day concluded with a meeting of representatives from each of the lower North Island Societies/Clubs in attendance. Matters discussed included: insurance, frames replacement, Royalpex (10-12 Sept 2021), and Society Centenaries

Organisers are evaluating the prospect of hosting a two-day Expo event (Sat 23rd – Sun 24th April) in 2022 to celebrate the Manawatu Society centenary.

NZPF AGM 2021

The NZPF Annual General Meeting will take place in Christchurch on 20 November 2021.

It is likely that the AGM will be offered by Zoom to encourage a wider number of members to attend. Further details will be published on the website closer to the time.
This, and other issues, will be part of the discussions taking place at the NZPF meeting to be held at Royalpex 2021 in Palmerston North on Saturday 11 September at 3:00pm.

International and National Exhibition Reports

International exhibitions are still affected by the restrictions on travel arising from Covid.

Royalpex 2021 – Planning for the forthcoming Royalpex 2021 full national exhibition organised by the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand under the auspices of the New Zealand Philatelic Federation is proceeding at full pace, with the exhibition being held on the 10 – 12 September 2021 at the Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre.
Newsletter No 2 has been released. This, the earlier newsletter and other information about Royalpex 2021 can be found at rpsnz.org.nz
Entries have now closed for the exhibition. As a result of a prior agreement reached between the Australia Philatelic Federation (APF) and the New Zealand Philatelic Federation (NZPF) photocopies of exhibits will be accepted due to travel restrictions on Australian Commissioners coming to New Zealand. While we will not be seeing the ‘real’ thing the quality of colour photocopying should still enable us to admire the exhibits.
Newcastle 2021 – Australian Half National to be held 22 – 24 October 2021 at the Newcastle Showground Exhibition Centre, NSW, Australia. newcastle-2021-stamp-and-coin-expo
17th NZ National Philatelic Literature Exhibition 2021 – 17th National Philatelic Literature Exhibition is being organised by the Christchurch Philatelic Society on 20 -21 November 2021 at the Philatelic Centre, 67 Mandeville Street, Riccarton. Entries close on 1 September 2021.
WPS100 Stamp Show 2022, Wellington – This National Exhibition celebrates 100 years of the Wellington Philatelic Society. It is to be held at Te Rauparaha Stadium, Porirua 15-17 July 2022. WPS100 will also host the Australasian Challenge.
Auckland NZ2023 – (FIAP Asian International Stamp Exhibition) – 16-19 March

Judges

ANZPJ Workshop

The Association of New Zealand Philatelic Judges (ANZPJ) held a successful judges’ workshop in Christchurch on May 22 and 23 at the Philatelic Centre in Riccarton. This was attended by 16 members and two Australians (Ian McMahon (Canberra) and Peter Allan (Tasmania)). Topics presented and discussed included Virtual Exhibitions, One Frame Class, Synopses, Topical Class, Aerophilately, Exhibitor’s Club, Philatelic Literature and Rarity.

Judges

Martin Treadwell has been appointed an apprentice judge
Congratulations to Jeff Long who has been approved by FIP as one of the pioneer FIP jurors for the FIP Experimental Picture Postcard class.