This post is the first of three I will be doing on New Zealand primary export industries. This issue is the 1936 Chamber of Commerce while the second will be a set of 6 stamps issued in 1968 Trade Definitives. The third will be the 1978 Agriculture / Lincoln College Centenary. All three of these stamp issues are whole devoted to the Agriculture Industries. 

        The five stamps of this issue commemorate the Congress of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, held at Wellington in October 1936. The Congress, first
convened in London in 1855, was a triennial event and this was the first occasion it had met in New Zealand.

        The stamps show the four main exports from New Zealand in the 1930s. When I was given this stamp issue to write about, Allan said do that thing you do about cows and sheep. Ok then Allan, you want my thing. LOL here goes.
½d - Wool.
Transportation of wool with an inset of shearing.
Wool was one of the first exports from farming. Wool could be stored and it travelled well too. The clothing mills in the UK needed it and could use as much as New Zealand could produce so quickly sheep became a major industry. Look at that old truck, struggling over those rough country roads with that massive load of wool. It is amazing how they got things done in those days with the machinery and resources they had.
The insert shows shearing.
I love shearing, can do a bit myself but usually leave it to the professional contract shears. They arrive and stay for about a week. Work hard doing long hours and sleep in the old bunk shed behind the wool shed. Each night we give them a feed and joined them for dinner. Each day we work with them, removing the wool, sorting and packing it into bales. Taking sheared sheep away and bringing more into the catching pens behind the shearing stands. Hard work but good fun.

1d - Butter.
Interior of a dairy factory with an inset of cow.
The dairy industry in the early days was the poor cousin to meat and wool.  Each area had their own dairy factory, usually made of concrete and brick, permanent buildings, you can still see many of them around today. As the picture shows, the work was done manually, each worker doing their own part of the process. Any milk produced could only be consumed locally.  Butter and cheese lasted a bit longer kept in chillers with ice. It was only when butter and cheese could be safely storied that it became an export industry.
By the 1930s when this stamp was issued New Zealand was exporting dairy products but it was still small compared to wool and meat. Today its New Zealand's leading export industry, 25% of export earnings. Science and technology, increasing production, improving quality. Rotary milking platforms, larger farms and herds, corporate farming, all signs of a changing and growing industry.  

2½d - Lamb.
Droving sheep with insert of sheep's head.
  New Zealand farmers had a problem, millions of sheep for wool but nowhere to send their meat. Lamb and mutton was wanted in England but how do they get them there. The answer was freezing them but fitting freezing equipment in a ship, a sailing ship at that, it was big challenge. The first shipment of frozen meat left Port Chalmers on 15 February 1882 on board the ship 'Dunedin'. The sailing ship of 1,250 tons took 98 days to reach London with its cargo of 4908 sheep and lamb carcasses. A new export industry had been born. This industry developed so quickly that within ten years, 17 freezing works capable of handling 3.5 million carcasses a year had been established. Famers starting breeding animals that were suitable for both wool and meat, so over the years new breeds have appeared that are unique to New Zealand. 
On our farm here meat production is a side-line business, our main production is milk followed by wool. We have a couple hundred head beef herd now, along with the lambs we supply to a butcher in a town nearby. Most of our lambs are sent off before the grass fails in winter and we only keep a few for hoggets and those need for flock replacement.  

4d - Apples.
Interior of fruit-packing shed with insert of fruit picker.
Every tried fruit picking? I did it a few times when I first moved up here to the farm. I picked apples as is shown here, then strawberries and grapes. It was hard work but I enjoyed it. I could only do it one season before I became fully employed on this farm.
I have a friend who works in a kiwifruit packing shed near Te Puke. I went to have a look once and was I impressed. They are massive machines now, sorting and sizing the fruit. Even robot packers, packing the fruit. Do you know that they can even video fruit for taste now? 

6d - Shipping.
Overseas liner discharging produce with inset of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire Conference logo.
Again a scene from the 1030s, loading the ships by hand and with cranes. Hard work, slow too but with large teams of men it got the job done. Today this is all gone. It all done with containers now. They are packed at the freezing work/dairy factory and sent off from there. Everything goes into them these days.


This is a registered cover but not a First Day Cover. Its claim for fame is that it contains all five stamps neatly positioned and neatly cancelled. Clearly its a special cover being sent to a collector from the USA. 


Technical information:-

Date of Issue:
1 October 1936
Designers:
L C Mitchell, Wellington
Printers:
Australian Bank Note and Stamp Printer, Australia
Stamp Size:
41mm x 25mm
Sheet Size:
48 stamps per sheet
Process:
Recess printed - Intaglio
Perforation Gauge:
11
Paper Type:
Wiggins Teape unsurfaced, NZ and star watermark

Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
You can visit their web site and On-line Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/