Commercial poultry farmers and household poultry keepers depend largely on crossbred pullets for egg production, White Leghorns, Australorps, and Rhode Island Reds being used as the basic pure breeds from which to produce first-cross laying birds. The mass mating of breeding birds to produce laying pullets is the system commonly practised. Modern methods of poultry breeding based on present day knowledge of poultry genetics have been adopted by a few poultry breeders, including some of the largest breeders in the country, who are trying to raise the economic qualities of their pure breeds and to find high-producing crossbred birds for distribution to commercial egg producers. One group of breeders is employing a geneticist to evaluate the results of the breeding work.

Statistics obtained in 1956 indicate that of the total poultry population approximately 60 per cent of the birds were in the North Island. The Auckland province has the highest poultry population in the country, about 37 per cent, the largest concentration being in the vicinity of the City of Auckland. Canterbury province, with many flocks around Christchurch, ranks second with nearly 20 per cent. Other popular areas for poultry are the Tauranga district, Gisborne, Hastings, Wanganui, Levin, Nelson, Timaru, Oamaru, Taieri, and Invercargill. The largest commercial poultry farmers have flocks of 8,000 or 10,000 birds – the minimum-size flock considered economical for egg production being 2,000 birds.

With the exception of small quantities of frozen egg pulp exported to the United Kingdom, the production of eggs and table poultry in New Zealand is entirely for the home market. Poultry production is confined mainly to eggs and table birds, a high proportion of the latter being laying birds at the end of their productive life. Specialised table poultry production has started, however, and is developing rapidly. There is also some raising of ducks for eggs or table purposes, and the rearing of turkeys for the Christmas trade.

Although a substantial proportion of the total eggs in shell consumed by the public is produced mainly by household poultry keepers, commercial poultry farmers produce most of the eggs sold by retailers. These larger producers market their eggs through egg floors, and so distribute them to retailers. Commercial poultry farmers breed and rear most of the birds in household and sideline flocks. Though the number of commercial poultry flocks is not large, their influence on the pattern of poultry production is most important.

The development of poultry production has been somewhat slow until recent years, but proportionate to the population increase. In 1963–64 New Zealanders bought nearly 28,400,000 dozen eggs, according to the annual report of the Poultry Board, and this figure compared with the sales of 10 years ago showed an increase of 140 per cent in that period.

(The figures quoted above are obtained whenever a population census is taken.)

(1824–88).

Naturalist.

A new biography of Potts, Thomas Henry appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Thomas Henry Potts was born on 23 November 1824, the son of Thomas Potts, small-arms manufacturer, and his wife, Mary Ann, née Freeman. He was christened at Brandon Church, Suffolk, on 16 July 1826. Through his father he inherited both a fortune and the family firm of Branders and Potts, later one of a group which formed the Birmingham Small Arms Co. Though Potts was trained as a gunmaker, his heart was in his hobbies – ornithology, entomology, and botany. On 2 April 1850 at the parish church of Bourton-on-Dunsmoor, Warwickshire, he married Emma, daughter of Henry Phillips. The wedding was not unnoticed by foreign dignitaries: a portrait of the bride and groom shows presents from Prince Louis Napoleon and an Indian prince. Three of the 13 children of this marriage were born at Croydon, the remainder in New Zealand.

After the death of his parents, Potts emigrated to New Zealand where his father-in-law had settled at Rockwood in the Malvern Hills, Canterbury. He made careful preparations for a new career, consulting with Kew as to the best plants to grow around homes in the young settlement. Before his departure for Lyttelton on the Ballanquith, on 24 April 1854, Potts sent out seeds, plants, and trees, including azaleas and rhododendrons, the first of their kind to be introduced into the province. These were the nucleus of his nursery at the corner of fashionable Tuam and Antigua Streets, Christchurch, from which seedlings were supplied to public and private gardens. In 1858 the family lived at “Ohinetahi”, Governors Bay, Lyttelton Harbour, the home most associated with them; and here, in a life spent mainly out of doors, Potts indulged his passion for nature study. Extensive explorations were made into the mountainous districts of Canterbury, Westland, and Banks Peninsula. His acute observations of nature gave to New Zealand literature unique records of birds and flora even then retreating before the progress of European occupation. Among new species discovered by Potts were the roa or great grey kiwi, and the black-billed gull.

Potts was a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council, for Port Victoria, from 1858 to 1861 and from 1866 to 1875, member of the House of Representatives for Mount Herbert from 1866 to 1870, and was the first parliamentarian to advocate forest conservation. A member of the Philosophical Society of Canterbury, the Canterbury Acclimatisation and Agricultural Societies, the Christchurch Domains' Board, and the board of trustees both of Canterbury College and Canterbury Museum, Potts played a full part in public life. He shared actively in the work of the magisterial bench and was one of the visiting Justices to the gaol where he took a keen interest in the welfare of prisoners. His church was St. Cuthbert's of Governors Bay, and here Potts delighted to serve in any capacity required.

A brisk, peppery, extremely strong, little man, witty and congenial, Potts was an expert cattleman, master of a 20 ft stockwhip. Loyal to his friends, Potts backed them financially against impossible odds, and of his fortune there was little but mortgages left when he died suddenly on 27 July 1888. After a life without a day's illness, he collapsed with a heart attack while making purchases in a stationery store. Best remembered for “Out in the Open”, a collection of scraps of natural history, Potts was a contributor to the Canterbury Times, the Field, London, the New Zealand Country Journal, the Journal of the Linnaean Society, the Transactions of the New Zealand Inst. and, unacknowledged, Buller's History of the Birds of New Zealand.

by Alan Drummond McKinnon, B.FOR.SC. Assistant Director (Forest Management) New Zealand Forest Service, Wellington and Lanna Coughlan, New Zealand Forest Service, Wellington.

• Press (Christchurch), 28 Jul 1888 (Obit).

The Post Office Savings Bank was set up in 1867 to give small investors a ready means of saving. It has grown quickly from an initial 2,156 accounts with £71,000 credit to 159,331 accounts of £4 million in 1906 to 2·5 million accounts of over £421 million in 1964. The money on credit is used for Government capital loans. In both wars the savings bank took a leading part in promoting national war savings.

There have been many developments with regard to ordinary savings accounts. The School Savings Bank scheme (1934) now includes 2,280 schools (nearly 90 per cent) and holds credits of about £1 million. Thrift club accounts (1949) allow firms to make group deposits for their employees' accounts – now accepted as a useful staff amenity. Home lay-by accounts (1957) allow young people to save towards buying their own houses. Investment accounts (1957) carry a higher interest for large amounts. There are now more than 17,800 of these accounts with an average credit of £1,514; and total credits have grown from £2 million by 1958 to £33 million in 1964. (Average amounts in other accounts in 1964 were: ordinary, £178; thrift, 63, and home lay-by, £364.)

The Post Office Savings Bank was the first to give non-profit organisations interest-bearing cheque accounts. Within limits money may be withdrawn on demand from any Post Office Savings Bank.

The Post Office, with its many branches, is well placed to do much work for other State Departments. One of its largest agencies is the registration of motor vehicles. Each year about 1,000,000 vehicles are relicensed; there are more than 300,000 changes of ownership; and there is a turnover of more than £8 million in fees, taxes, insurance premiums, and refunded duty on motor spirits. Most of its 40 agency services deal mainly with cash transactions. In 1964 its receipts and payments for other Departments totalled £170 million.

by Claude John Enright, formerly Principal Public Relations Officer, New Zealand Post Office.

• For further information see Post Office publications
• rates and charges guides, annual reports, statistical tables, etc.;also A History of the New Zealand Post Office, Robinson, H. (1964).

New Zealand, through the governmental agency of the Post Office, is a member of two world-communications organisations – the International Telecommunication Union and the Universal Postal Union. The Postal Union facilitates the interchange of international mails, determines international postage rates, standardises procedures in international services, and enables postal telegraph accounts to be settled among its members. At the Ottawa Congress in 1957 New Zealand was elected to the Executive and Liaison Committee of the Postal Union. The International Telecommunication Union is the result of the fusion in 1932 of the International Telegraph Union, formed in 1865, and of the International Radio-Telegraph Union, formed in 1906. The purpose of the I.T.U. is to promote technical and practical coordination and cooperation of telecommunications services. Through the I.T.U. New Zealand has helped other countries to develop telecommunications, especially by lending specialist engineers for particular projects.

New Zealand's external services are integrated into the British Commonwealth telecommunications system, coordinated by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board. The Post Office acts as the New Zealand national body and controls and operates all overseas telecommunication equipment.

Introduction

The first Post Office radio station began in the tower of the General Post Office, Wellington, in 1911, being transferred to Tinakori Hill, Wellington, in 1912. Here its range was greatly increased and it became New Zealand's main transmitting station. A radio station was opened at Auckland in 1912 and another at Awarua, a few miles from Invercargill, a year later. After the disastrous earthquake of 1931 had cut telegraph communications, the Post Office established emergency radio services between main centres. The Post Office also uses radio to communicate with the off-shore islands. Makara Radio Station, 11 miles from Wellington, was opened in 1944. It is the main radio-receiving station for overseas radiotelegraph, radiotelephone and radio-photo services. Himatangi Radio Station, near Foxton, which was opened in 1953, is the transmitting counterpart of Makara Radio. A mobile radio service began in 1948 to give two-way radio communications for taxis, ambulances, fire engines, etc.

Post Office Administration of Radio

The Post Office administers both international and internal radio regulations. It registers call signs for all New Zealand controlled radio services and allocates radio frequencies. It licenses radio and television receivers and radio equipment, including research and private radio stations, and it investigates and eliminates sources of interference to radio and television transmission.

Telegraph

New Zealand's first overseas telegraph cable was laid by the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co. in collaboration with the Australian and New Zealand Governments between La Perouse (Sydney) and Wakapuaka (Nelson). It was opened for business on 21 February 1876. For several years before this telegrams for many parts of the world could be telegraphed to a New Zealand port mailing to Melbourne or Sydney for onward dispatch by cable. The cable rate to Great Britain from Sydney was £9 9s. 6d. for 20 words. Traffic was increased when charges were reduced with the setting up in 1902 of an “all-red” route, jointly owned by the British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Governments. In 1912 a cable was laid between Sydney and Auckland. The Wakapuaka terminal was later abandoned and the cable landed at Titahi Bay near Wellington in 1917.

Increasing competition from fast-developing radio services resulted in the formation in 1929 of a merger company, later known as Cable and Wireless Ltd., which coordinated the various systems, including the cables serving New Zealand. A branch of this company operated the cable service at Auckland until 1948 when the Commonwealth countries concerned nationalised their overseas telecommunications services and the Post Office assumed the management of the New Zealand terminal. Telegraph services by radio were established to London in 1952, to Sydney in 1954, to Vancouver-Montreal in 1959, and an international telex service opened in 1960. In 1947 a radiophoto service was opened with Australia and England.

Telephone

From 1930 until 1962 New Zealand's overseas telephone service used high-frequency radio. By 1962 there were four channels to Australia and one each to Britain, Canada, the United States, and Fiji. Service was restricted, except to Australia. The first link of COMPAC, the Commonwealth Pacific telephone cable owned by Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, was laid between Sydney and Auckland in June 1962. Suva was reached by the end of the year, and by the end of 1963 the cable was completed to Vancouver through Hawaii, giving New Zealand high-quality telephone service to North America, and through “CANTAT” (the transatlantic section of the Commonwealth cable) to England and Europe.

Over the shorter routes to Australia and Fiji New Zealand toll operators are now able to dial subscribers direct in the distant country. A system of dialling over long intercontinental cable circuits has recently been developed and is being incorporated in a new international exchange planned for installation in 1966–67 and at that time semi-automatic operation will be introduced with Britain, Canada, and the United States.

The cable handles telegraph, telex, and photo services, in addition to telephone calls. New Zealand is also a partner in SEACOM, the proposed Commonwealth South-East Asia telephone cable which is to provide a link between Australia, New Guinea, North Borneo, Singapore, and the Federation of Malaya, with a spur to Hong Kong. New Zealand provided the convenor for the SEACOM Management Committee. In 1962 two Post Office engineers were seconded to Britain in order that New Zealand might take part in a Commonwealth programme to develop long-distance communication by earth satellites.

Telegraph

Telegraphy, the earliest practical application of the science of electricity, had been developed by Wheat-stone and Cook in England and by Morse in America. In 1862, only 18 years after Morse's first long-distance line had been built, the Canterbury Provincial Council opened New Zealand's first telegraph line between Lyttelton and Christchurch. This was followed shortly afterwards by one between Port Chalmers and Dunedin. The telegraph network had, by 1866, spread over the South Island and across the Cook Strait to Wellington.

Progress was slower in the North Island, particularly on the main link between Auckland and Wellington. The first telegraph line in the North Island was a military line from Auckland to Drury, which was later extended to the Waikato. The Electric Telegraph Department, established by the Central Government in 1863, took over the Auckland military network, and in 1866 started on the Wellington to Auckland route. Though this reached Napier through Masterton two years later, it did not reach Auckland until 1872. A route through the King Country would have been too difficult (Maoris were hostile, the land bush-covered and rough). Even the easier Masterton route had to follow the coast in order to avoid the dense bush. This line was eventually extended from Napier, through Taupo and Rotorua, to Thames, where it met the Auckland line already extended from Mercer. Within 10 years of the establishment of the first telegraph line more than 2,000 miles had been erected and 400,000 messages a year were being handled. Ten years later (1882) the lines had almost doubled in length and 1·5 million telegrams were being handled annually. The Electric Telegraph Department was for 18 years separate from the Post Office, though its Commissioner was also Postmaster-General and many of its “telegraph-masters” were also postmasters. By 1879 only 19 of the 214 telegraph stations were operating independently. Minimum charges for 10-word telegrams in 1868 ranged from 1d. a word between nearby stations to 8d. a word over long routes. A universal rate of 1s. for 10 words was adopted in the seventies. In 1896, 6d. telegrams were adopted to encourage traffic, but by 1915 the Postmaster-General was speaking publicly of a loss of 2d. on every telegram handled, and the basic rate was increased to 8d. that year and to 1s. in 1920. Charges later fluctuated, with a general tendency to meet rising costs as far as possible without too cramping an effect on traffic growth.

Machine-printing telegraph equipment, which promised reduced costs, was first used in New Zealand in 1921 between Wellington and Christchurch. It was the multiplex type, of New Zealand design, by which four messages could be sent in each direction on each circuit. This system continued for about 30 years, but meanwhile the first of the more modern and faster teleprinters had been introduced in 1929. The centennial year of the telegraph in New Zealand (1962) marked the virtual end of morse. Teleprinters are now used on all important circuits with subsidiary transmission by telephone. Teleprinters are also used on the network of circuits leased by the Press Association and on more than 300 direct branch-to-branch circuits leased by business firms and Government Departments. The usefulness to the commercial community of leased teleprinters was greatly increased in 1964 when automatic Telex switching of teleprinter calls became available on a national network. Three and a half million inland telegrams were sent in 1900; 7¼ in 1920; 4½ in 1940; and 7¼ million in 1960. In 1964 7,194,945 inland telegrams were sent.

Principal Inland Rates in 1964

Urgent Telegrams: Ordinary rates plus 1s.

“Greetings” Telegrams: Ordinary rates plus 1s.

(These telegrams are delivered on special decorative stationery.)

(Letter telegrams are delivered by post on the next working day.)

Telephones

Telephones were first used in New Zealand as an ancillary to the telegraph service, the Telegraph Commissioner “fully anticipating that this means of intercommunication would be largely made use of in the future”. The first telephone exchanges were opened in 1881 at Christchurch (27 subscribers) and Auckland (26 subscribers). Dunedin followed in 1882 and Wellington in 1883. By 1890 there were about 2,500 subscribers, rising in 1900 to 7,150. In 1913 the first automatic exchange equipment was in operation at Auckland and Wellington, though the equipment merely supplemented the manual exchanges. It was not until 1919 that an automatic exchange at Masterton was opened, with all telephones operating automatically. By 1910 there were 29,681 telephones installed, including extensions. In each of the next two decades the numbers were more than doubled and by 1964 had reached a total of 901,955. New Zealand ranks fourth in the world in telephone density and, on present rates of growth, could soon be third. In 1962 it had 34·8 telephones per hundred of population. In the 10 years from 1952 to 1962 the number of subscribers increased by 99·7 per cent from 288,704 to 576,570. In the year 1964 almost 70,800 new installations were made. Even so, more than 19,000 applicants were still on waiting lists. Seventy-seven per cent of all telephones in use in 1964 were automatic.

(NOTE – By mid-1965 it was estimated that 35 per cent of New Zealanders had a telephone. On this basis New Zealand was third in world telephone density, behind the United States (44·28 sets for every 100 people) and Sweden (42·25 sets per 100). Canada and Switzerland were fourth and fifth respectively.)

Until recently rural telephone service was usually provided by party lines, sometimes owned and maintained by subscribers. In 1960 there were 55,227 party lines serving a total of 173,139 subscribers' stations. Since the Second World War small automatic telephone exchanges have been established in many country places, mainly with individual lines or small party lines. An emergency telephone service (dial 111) for ambulance, police, and fire services operates in about 90 exchanges. Coin-in-the-slot telephones were first tried experimentally in Wellington in 1910 for local calls. Multi-coin slot telephones, from which local and toll calls can be made or telegrams telephoned for onward transmission, were first installed in 1938 in Christchurch.

Annual telephone rentals for residential telephones range from £12 for very small exchanges up to £16 for the main centres. Business telephone rentals range from £18 to 31. Party lines are charged at correspondingly lower rentals. Accounts for telephone rentals and for toll calls are machine processed and issued from three zone account centres which are located at Auckland, Palmerston North, and Christchurch.

Telephone Toll Services

Some countries charge a fee for all telephone calls. In New Zealand service is charged for on a flat rate for unrestricted calling within the local exchange area and with toll fees for calls to other exchange areas. At the turn of the century calls from one exchange to another could be made only if the distance were short and if circuits were not needed for telegraph traffic. By 1906 telephone toll lines from Dunedin to Invercargill, Auckland to Hamilton, and Wellington to Masterton were in service and others were being built. The first telephone cable connecting the North and South Islands was laid in 1926. This cable, and the new technique of “carrier” telephony adopted in the twenties, made it possible for really long-distance calls to be made. Carrier techniques improved both the quality of the transmission and the capacity of the lines. Toll services were further improved in 1960 by the new large-capacity toll link between Auckland and Wellington. Coaxial cable is used from Auckland to Hamilton and from Wellington to Palmerston North, with microwave channels between Hamilton and Palmerston North. Many other circuits, coaxial cable, microwave, and V.H.F., are being built.

A policy of wider free-calling areas has recently been adopted and selected flat-rate areas are being extended to enable subscribers to call over much greater distances without paying a toll fee for each call. In spite of this policy, toll traffic continues to grow. In 1900, calls numbered 260,000; in 1920, 6¾ million; in 1940, 16 million; in 1960, 47½ million; and in 1962, 55 million.

Toll rates for distances up to 30 miles range from 5d. to 1s. 1d. for each three minutes or fraction. They are the same day and night. For distances over 30 miles the rates range from 1s. 7d. to a maximum of 8s. for three minutes' conversation. These rates are increased by approximately one-third of the relative initial rate for each minute exceeding three. Between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. on weekdays and between midnight and 6 a.m. on Sundays and departmental holidays the rates for calls over 40 miles are reduced and vary from 1s. 9d. to 6s. 1d. for three minutes' conversation, with a proportionate increase for each additional minute. The charge for an urgent call is double the rate for an ordinary call.

Inland Surface Mail

Early postage rates varied considerably. The settlers at Hokianga, when requesting a regular overland mail from the Bay of Islands, suggested a fee of not more than 1s. a letter, which was agreed to. Letters sent by ship from the Bay of Islands to Wellington cost 8d. A Post Office ordinance of 1842 set the postage for inland letters at 6d. a half ounce but allowed newspapers to be sent free. The British Government overruled this ordinance and reduced the letter rate to 4d., charging 1d. on newspapers. A Proclamation in 1849 reduced the inland letter rate to 2d. a half ounce irrespective of distance. In the 1860s three different rates applied: one for delivery from the office of posting, another for delivery in the same province, and another for delivery in another province. The rates were 1d., 2d., and 3d. a half ounce respectively. “Universal” penny postage was introduced on 1 January 1901 by J. G. Ward, Postmaster-General. It was an event of great importance. The reduced rate applied inland and also to all British and many foreign countries.

Of the 286 mail services operating in 1874, 137 were carried on horseback, 83 by coach or mail cart, 43 by water, 13 on foot, and 10 by rail. The total length of these services was more than 7,000 miles and the annual milage 1·4 million. Horses, of which there were few in the 1840s, had now become the chief means of transport. Horse-drawn mail coaches played an important role in the South Island during the gold-rush period and for many years afterwards in both Islands, travelling along hard sandy beaches or on the primitive roads. The last important horse-drawn coach ran between Arthur's Pass and Otira until 1923, when the railway tunnel was opened. The bold policies of Julius Vogel led to improved postal services in the seventies when the railways carried more and more mail. In 1878 the first Railway Travelling Post Office, in which mail clerks occupied a van and sorted and closed mail en route, began between Christchurch and Dunedin. By 1881 the railways were providing 50 mail services, and their development helped to make it possible for a parcel-post service to be introduced in 1887.

Until 1905 people living beyond a postman's delivery area had to collect their own mail at the post office. In that year mails were first delivered to rural areas. This scheme was reorganised and an annual fee introduced on 1 January 1922, when there were 8,700 boxholders. Today there are 75,000 box-holders. The system enables country people to obtain postal notes and money orders and to post and receive mail. Railcars and motor vehicles in recent years have taken over from express trains and speeded the transport of letter mails, but have reduced the services available for the prompt conveyance of second-class mail. Inter-island surface mail has for many years been carried on the steamer-express services between Wellington and Christchurch and between Wellington and Picton. A rail ferry, the Aramoana, now runs between Wellington and Picton, and a through wagon from Auckland is used for mail from intermediate offices for Christchurch and southern offices.

In 1900 a mechanical date-stamping machine was installed in Wellington. Motorcars were first used three years later to carry mail, though it was not until 1908 that the Post Office bought its own vehicles for this purpose. In 1903 trials were made with a stamp-selling machine invented by a Wellington mail clerk. Though there were some initial difficulties in design, these machines were adopted and manufactured by the Post Office. New Zealand's first mechanical sorting machine was brought into service in September 1961. This machine, which was installed in the Auckland parcel depot, is a first step towards the ultimate goal of extensive mechanisation in postal branches. The variety of sizes, shapes, and destinations of posted articles presents many obstacles to full automation, but planning is in hand for a large postal centre at Wellington which will make extensive use of machine service. A registration system for all classes of postal articles gives a maximum coverage of £400 and supersedes two previous systems, one for registration with a small limit, and one for insurance of more valuable articles.

The number of articles posted has increased almost sevenfold, from 68 million in 1900 to 161 in 1920, 288 in 1940, 464 in 1960, and 534 million in 1964 – almost 188 per person.

Overseas Surface Mail

The first regular overseas-mail service was arranged by the Auckland Provincial Council in 1854. It ran monthly between Auckland and Sydney, though there was no regular service from Sydney to England until the next year when a service via the Mediterranean was arranged. (Mail was taken overland at Suez.) Services through Sydney were the main outlet for many years, though the occasional ships travelling round Cape Horn were used. To improve the service to England the New Zealand Government arranged a contract for mail to go through Panama, travelling overland. The Panama service carried 600,000 letters in 1868, but the cost was high, and as there were few passengers on the ships the service ended the following year.

The completion of a railway across the United States opened up a new route which New Zealand began to use in 1870. Mail on this route reached England in six weeks. For many years there was also a service through Vancouver. Nowadays surface mails for the United Kingdom and Europe are usually sent on ships sailing direct through the Panama Canal. Direct mails from New Zealand are now made up for a number of European countries, including France, Germany, and Belgium. Services are frequent and the average transit time to England is approximately 35 days. A large proportion of lettermail is now dispatched by air, while ships are mainly used for the carriage of parcels, packets, and newspapers.

Principal Postage Rates, 1964

Letters and Letter Cards

Inland: 4d. first ounce, 1d. each additional ounce.

British Commonwealth countries: 4d. first ounce, 1d. for each additional ounce (same as for inland).

Other countries: 7d. first ounce, 4d. each additional ounce.

Registration Fee

Inland: 1s. up to £10, 1s. 6d. up to 20, 6d. each additional £20 up to 400.

Overseas: 1s. up to £2 18s.

Airmail

At the close of the First World War the Post Office was considering using aeroplanes for carrying mail and, in 1919, George Bolt made the first experimental mail flight from Auckland to Dargaville. Aircraft were also used the following year for a number of “aerial” mail services, and regular experimental airmail flights were started in 1921 between Christchurch and Timaru and between Auckland and Wanganui. Airmail was not much used and the services were abandoned after three months. Unsuccessful attempts were made in 1930 to establish regular airmail services between the main centres. In 1935 a successful airmail service started between Hokitika and South Westland. A year later there were daily airmail services between the main centres. Today aircraft link most of the important cities and give regular and frequent mail services.

Overseas Airmail

Flight Lieutenant C. T. P. Ulm carried the first New Zealand – Australia airmail in February 1934, flying from Muriwai Beach to Sydney. Two months later he carried the first Australia – New Zealand airmail from Sydney to New Plymouth. In 1938 Pan-American Airways started an airmail service to link New Zealand and the United States. This was suspended when its flying boat was lost at sea. New Zealand was eventually linked by air with the Australia-England service and regular trans-Pacific air service which was established between Auckland and San Francisco in 1940. There are now regular and frequent services which carry 75 per cent of all overseas letter mail. Each year the volume of overseas airmail increases. Inward airmail now weighs 400 tons a year, and outward 200 tons.

Airmail Rates, 1964

Special rates for fishing rods, golf clubs, and cinematograph films.