POSTAL RARITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 227, 25 September 1935, Page 5

POSTAL RARITY.

LETTER SENT FREE.

FIRST IN NEW ZEALAND. QUETTA EARTHQUAKE ECHO. A letter of more than ordinary interest to the philatelist has come into the possession of an Aucklander, Mr. L. E. Dore, of Mount Roskill. Apparently an earthquake is one of the few causes sufficiently out of the ordinary to make a Government give something away for nothing, for this envelope is marked, "Quetta Earthquake—Postage Free." As a result of the calamity at Quetta, in India, at the end of May, postal facilities, together with all other civic

amenities, were disorganised. In an effort to make some sort of provision in the meantime to handle postal matter, a free postal service was inaugurated. This period of free postage lasted for two weeks, when a temporary post office and staff was established. Mr. Dore has another envelope dispatched during the latter period. The official cancellation stamp bears the inscription, "Experimental P. 0." The envelope must e the first to have reached New Zealand. Mr. Dore received these letters from his brother, Major A. N. Dore, of'the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, who is stationed at Karachi. Someone in Quetta sent a letter to n Indian noncommissioned officer in Kaimari, from whom Major ijore obtained the curiosity. Kaimari is near Karachi. The envelope, of which a photograph is published, is already of a certain monetary value. Philatelists will pay more than £1 for copies in London, while it should be much more valuable in a few years.