NEW ZEALAND AIR MAILS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND AIR MAILS

♦ STAMP COLLECTORS RECORD MELBOURNE AWARD FOR MR R. J. (J. COLLINS Mr R. J. G. Collins, of Christchurch, has been advised that he has been awarded a gold medal for his collection of air mail covers at the Melbourne Centenary philatelic exhibition. Mr Collins exhibited the only complete collection in existence, of flown covers (envelopes complete with stamps, postmarks, and endorsements from letters carried by air) dating from 1919 to the most recent flights. The collection, which has been formed over a period of some years, was first shown at the philatelic exhibition at Sydney, three years ago. It was then awarded the championship cup. A similar award was also won at Christchurch last year.

Two sect*---5 of the collection are of outstanding interes One of these comprises covers carried in all the emergency flights made in New Zealand, as at the time of the Hawke's Bay earthquake, the West Coast earthquake, and the South Canterbury and Hawke's Bay floods. The other section deals with the various flights across the Tasman Sea, including the very rare covers carried by Sir Charles KingsfordSmith and Mr C. T. P. Ulm in the first flight of the Southern Cross in 1928. Almost all the covers in the collection have been signed by the pilots of the aeroplanes which carried them.

The First Letters Carried The earliest cover was carried in 1919, from Auckland to Dargaville, by Mr G. B. Bolt. This flight was arranged, according to an official notice, "to investigate the practical utility of the conveyance of mail matter by air in New Zealand." An official use of aerial carriage for routine letters by a Minister of the Crown is illustrated by one of the covers. This was carried from Helensville to Auckland, in May, 1922. It happened that the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, who was then Post-master-General and Minister for Public Works, arrived in Helensville during a tour of northern districts at the same time as Mr Bolt, who was flying a Boeing, seaplane. The Minister took the opportunity of having his letters taken to Auckland by air, and no other mail was carried.