1999 Victoria University Centenary

        In 1999, Victoria University proudly celebrated 100 years of scholarship and success. New Zealand Post issued a special stamp to commemorate the centennial celebrations. The 100th birthday celebrations were a year-long affair, bound together by the theme of ‘Changing Lives’, and culminating in the official centennial week. 
        The entire occasion was a unique opportunity to showcase the University’s academic achievements, past and present, and to publicise the many successes of graduates, scholars and staff. Activities included garden parties, conferences and reunions as well as major musical, sporting and artistic events.

40c - Hunter Building, Victoria University.

This 40c stamp depicted the Hunter building, a neo-gothic building officially opened in 1906 and situated on the main campus.

2005 Commemoratives

In 2005, New Zealand Post celebrated the invaluable and selfless work of three community-based organisations who celebrate key moments in their history. Through this issue, New Zealand Post paid tribute to the many thousands of New Zealanders who, as members and supporters of these three community groups, cared for those around them.

Six single stamps and four miniature sheets.

Let's look at them in more detail below.

1995 Anniversaries and Events.

Three stamp issues during 1995 celebrating important events.

 

 1995 Conferences.                                                                         1995 United Nations.

1995 Commonwealth Heads.

2007 Centenaries

          Ours is a unique country that’s recognised around the world for its caring nature, love of sport and innovative spirit. In 2007, four significant organisations that have helped shape our culture of today celebrated their centenary.

Se-tenant Block of four 50 cent, one $1, one $1.50 and two $2 stamps.

          NZ Post marked these events by this issue of eight stamps with each organisation being represented by two stamp showing scenes from 1907 and 2007. The stamps have been designed with the older scenes being in one colour reflecting the photography of that time and the new scenes being shown in the full colour of modern photography.

Centenaries 1985 & 1986.

           This post covers two issues celebrating centenaries of two organisations that do much to support our way of life in New Zealand. The first is the St John's Ambulance, always there in times of need, giving on scene first-aid and life-saving transport to hospital.
           The second organisation is the New Zealand Police. A strip of five stamps illustrating the varied facets of police work - old and modern.

1985 Centenary of St John's Ambulance.

1085 is one hundred years since the St John's Ambulance Association was established in Christchurch. To mark this event NZ Post issued a three value set showing the three crosses connected with St John's. This post looks at the history of the St John's movement going back hundreds of years before it became the organisation we know today.

24c - Bailiffs and Dames Grand Cross on Red.

1982 / 1983 Anniversaries / Commemoratives

      This post covers the two Anniversary Issues of 1982 and 1983. Both issues contain five stamps covering a range of centenaries, anniversaries and commemoratives. Each stamp is attractive, interesting and has a story to tell.

1982 Anniversaries / Commemoratives.

20c - Centenary of Tauranga.     20c - Centenary of Hawera.

1981 Anniversaries / Family Life.

1981 Anniversaries / Commemoratives.

The 1981 Commemorative Stamp Issue consisted of two stamps commemorating 
the Centenary of Feilding and the International Year of Disabled Persons.

20c - Centenary of Feilding.

1981 marked the centenary of the Constitution of Feilding as a Borough.  The town was named after the Honourable Colonel William Henry Adelbert Feilding, 1836-1895, son of 7th Earl of Denbeigh.  Feilding is a community serving the rural area of the upper Manawatu and has a population of about 13,000.  A main feature of the borough is the stock sale yards which play an important part in the agricultural and pastoral activities of the district.

1978 Anniversaries.

The 1978 Commemorative Stamp Issue honours the centenaries of two farming towns: Stratford and Ashburton; a sub-tropical county: the Bay of Islands; and the introduction of the telephone into New Zealand.

1977 Anniversaries

         Most of the stamps featured in this blog are mint (unused) so this time I've decided to do something different. Everything on this page except some of the errors are used stamps. So we can still enjoy the designs on the stamp themselves I have purposely selected examples with lighter cancels.

          In 1977 the annual Anniversary Issue featured 5 stamps. In this case the coat of arms of each organisation took centre place in the designs. In the case of the AA (10c value) I'm not sure that could be called a coat of arms as it is rather more like an emblem.  
         The 3 x 8c stamps were printed se tenant on one sheet while the 2 x 10c stamps were printed together on a second sheet. This gave us the two strips as seen above and on the First Day Cover further down.

1975 Anniversaries

         This 1975 Commemorative stamp issue commemorated the anniversaries identified below. The 40th Anniversary of the New Zealand Crippled Children's Society (Inc) and the 50th Anniversary of the Women's Division Federated Farmers of New Zealand Inc (designed by V Jepsen), and International Women's Year and Centenary of the Otago Medical School (designed by Allan Mitchell).

       Four stamps by two designers have given us an issue that stands out among the issues of the 1970s. The stamps have a very simple format too. A large colourful design with a white section down the left side showing each organization's symbol, title and dates of the anniversary being celebrated.

1990 Scenic / 150th Anniversaries

       In 1990 the annual Scenic issue was combined with an Anniversary Issue. Each of the cities or locations were celebrating 150 year anniversaries.

80c - Akaroa
Captain Jean Langlois, a French whaler from Havre, first sailed into Akaroa Harbour in 1838.  He was most favourably impressed with what he saw and began negotiations with the Maori to purchase a portion of the peninsula.  This was the beginning of the French attempt to establish a colony in the area, only to discover that British sovereignty had been declared over the whole of the South Island.

Akaroa never developed into a town or city of any size because it quickly became over shadowed the Littleton Port and Christchurch City but it has remained an peaceful farming town while in more recent years large cruise ships have started using the harbour to provide their passengers with something different while saving the high port fees of Littleton.

1971 Anniversaries & Centennaries

        The commemorative issues of 1971 were divided into a list of smaller issues that appeared over the whole year. I've tried to tidy them up by arranging them into three posts. The first is on the Anniversaries & Centennaries of 1971. The second is on Special Events of 1971. The third is on Three City Centennaries of 1971. 

1971 - CWI/Rotary.

        The first two commemorative stamps were issued in February 1971, one for Rotary and the other for the Country Women's Institutes.

50th Anniversary Country Women's Institute

4c - 50th Anniversary of the New Zealand Country Women's Institutes.

The Country Women's Institutes have as their prime objective "assisting women to take an effective part in rural life and development".  The organisation actively fosters culture, friendship and handcrafts.  The Dominion Federation of New Zealand Country Women's Institutes is affiliated to the Association of Country Women of the World.

I am a member of our local group. It is a great organisation that does some good work in the community. When the house burnt down up the valley from us. The ladies did a great job helping that young couple get established again. I've also made some very good friends with ladies I have met at the meetings.

1970 Commemorative Issues

         Through the late 1960s and early 1970s there were a number of commemorative issues but during that time period the practice was to issue them as separate times. It was only later during the 1970s that these smaller issues began to get combined into one larger issue. Three of these smaller issues can been seen here where we have decided to feature them in this one post.

1970 Cardigan Bay.

This stamp was issued to commemorate the return to New Zealand of Cardigan Bay, the first standard bred light-harness horse in racing history to win $1,000,000 in stake money.

10c - Cardigan Bay Trotting.

1974 Anniversaries

The next Anniversaries Issue features three vertical format stamps. I've mentioned before that this is one aspect that I like about these issues is that each year the stamps seem to have a similar appearance although they celebrate widely different events/organisations. 

In 1974, one stamp celebrated the Centenary of Napier

and two stamps celebrated the Centenary of the Universal Postal Union.

1973 Anniversaries

The second time NZ Post issued a set of anniversary stamps they chose a landscape design of six values. The subjects ranged from two towns, a university, an environmental society, a sport and an international development commission. With such different subjects it is hard to achieve a standard design but these six stamps do fit together as a set. 

The 3c design was completed by Vivian Jepsen, with the remaining five

designs completed by B Langford.

1972 Anniversaries

Up until 1972 New Zealand had been issuing Anniversary and Centennial stamps as these events occurred. In 1972 it was decided to group these together to form a five stamp issue marking five different events. For many years the Anniversary Issue became a regular part of NZ Post's yearly stamp issues.  

The second feature of these annual Anniversary issues was that the stamps had a similar appearance even though each stamp represented a totally different subject. The common theme of this issue was bold silhouettes against colourful two-tone backgrounds. This can best be seen when the whole set is viewed laid out as they are above.  

1969 Anniversaries.

         This post looks at four anniversary issues from 1969 which we have placed together on one page. Anniversary stamp issues are some times overlooked by collectors, even though they are often colourful, well designed stamps. They usually have an interesting story behind them as well. Included in this group is an historical event, a university, a New Zealand aid organisation and an international labour organisation.   

                                            

                                              

       There were actually two other issues, 1969 Captain Cook Bicentenary and the 1969 New Zealand Law Society Centenary which have been featured in other posts.

1968 Universal Suffrage / Human Rights

For the first time the Post Office issued two commemorative stamps on the same day that marked different subjects. This was an important turning point in New Zealand commemorative stamp which led to a annual issue of a set of anniversary/commemorative stamps. This was the first occasion that New Zealand stamps were printed by the Japanese Government Printing Bureau. 

               

One stamp, the 3c value, commemorated the 75th anniversary of Universal Suffrage in New Zealand: In 1893 women for the first time were permitted to vote in the country's parliamentary elections, making New Zealand one of the first countries in the world to introduce Women's Suffrage.
The second stamp, the 10c value, marked the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

1965 Commemorative Issues.

It was my original intention to make this a small post featuring the four stamps from the Commemorative Issues of 1965 but other members of our blog team kept sending me interesting items which I wanted to include. Now it has grown to become quite a large post. But isn't that what the blog is about, finding something new or interesting in these often overlooked and unloved stamps.     ( Anne)

1965 International Telecommunications Union Centenary.

 New Zealand, in common with other members of the International Telecommunication Union, issued a special stamp in 1965 to commemorate the centenary of the organisation. The Union, which has its headquarters in Geneva, was formed in 1865 and is the oldest of the international organisations which are now specialised agencies under the United Nations. The purpose of the Union is to maintain and extend international co-operation in the use of telecommunications of all kinds.

9d - International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The design shows a telegraph wire held by a post from 1865 on the left-hand side, while modern telecommunications from 1965 is shown on the right-hand side. In the centre is a globe show ITU as a global organisation.

1976 Anniversaries

Five anniversaries were commemorated by way of stamps in 1976. This issue continued what had become an annual issue of stamps marking anniversaries and other important events. Some issues, such as the set below were designed in a cartoon or graphic style. Some, such as Allan, the owner of this blog, have a strong opinion about this saying it does nothing for the message of the stamp. Since we have completed all the other 1976 stamp issues and no one else in our writing team seems interested, I have decided to create a post on this issue.  

"The stamp designs were what NZ Post called graphic representations of the various subjects and organisations they commemorated. This style seemed to be used over many issues from around this period. In some cases they worked well but in many cases they were a low point in New Zealand postage design."  Allan.