Mail could be sent to New Zealand by the London - Karachi air mail service from 1929, although it was not until July 1930 that airmail could be sent from New Zealand. The cover shown below is the only known cover addressed to New Zealand and flown on the first flight leaving London on 30 March 1929.

To New Zealand, 1929

The weekly Imperial Airways London to Karachi air mail service started on Saturday 30 March 1929. Although the Post Office had not announced that mail would be accepted for Australia and New Zealand, some letters were sent to Australia [1].

This registered cover is postmarked 28 March in Liverpool and is addressed to F M Paterson in Timaru.

Walker [2] states that covers to New Zealand have not been previously recorded and so this could be the only known example [3]. I would be interested to hear from anyone with a similar cover.

The Karachi REG backstamp is indistinct. The date appears to include the characters 6 R 9 (and therefore could be 6 APR 29) while the time is 9 PM. It is known that the plane arrived in Karachi on 6 April. From there mail was sent by surface to Colombo (Ceylon) and then by sea to Sydney via Fremantle (Perth). From Sydney, mail for New Zealand was sent by sea.

According to [1], the mail arrived in Perth on Saturday 27 April which is surprising as the P&O mailboat was scheduled to arrive in Fremantle on a Tuesday and in Sydney on the following Monday. Another cover in [1] is reported as arriving in Rochester, Victoria on Monday 6 May which would correspond to the arrival of the mailboat in Fremantle on Tuesday 30 April and in Melbourne on 4 or 5 May. That would suggest that the New Zealand cover arrived on the P&O mailboat in Sydney on 6 May.

The cover has the manuscript inscription Printed matter and carries postage of 9½d made up of 6d airmail, 3d registration and ½d reduced surface rate.

The first official acceptance of mail for Australia and New Zealand using the London - Karachi air mail service left London on 31 August 1929, but the plane crashed while landing at Jask in Persia on 6 September. The pilot, Albert Woodbridge, one of the crew and the only passenger were killed [4]. The mail was destroyed in the fire. Albert Woodbridge is famous as the airman who wounded and shot down von Richthofen, the Red Baron, in 1917.

The first successful official acceptance of airmail for New Zealand via Karachi left London on 7 September, 1929.

Use of the London - Karachi airmail service, as part of the route to Australia or New Zealand, made little improvement in the time. The last posting each week for ordinary mail to Australia at the London GPO was at 6pm on Thursday evening while, using the airmail service, mail could be posted one and a half days later at 6am on a Saturday. Given the extra cost, it is not surprising that little use was made of the service to Australia and New Zealand was withdrawn between May 1930 and 12 May 1932 [8]. Use of the Karachi - London service from Australia and New Zealand remained.

Prepayment of Overseas Airmail using New Zealand Stamps, July 1930

It was not until 1 July 1930 that New Zealand stamps were accepted to pre-pay airmail postage on overseas routes and so letters from New Zealand could be sent via the Imperial Airways Karachi - UK airmail route. (Mail from Australia had been accepted since December 1929.) The cost was 7d per ½oz plus the normal surface postage rate of 1d.

The example cover is postmarked 9 July. Mail to be flown on the Karachi - London service did not leave New Zealand until 11 July. It went by sea from Auckland to Sydney and then on the P&O mailboat which left Sydney on Wednesday 16 July. It was off-loaded at Colombo and sent by surface mail to Karachi from where it was flown on 5 August, arriving in London on 11 August [6].

The Cairo - London part of the route had changed in April 1930. Mail was sent by rail from Cairo to Alexandria and flown from there by flying boat to Salonica from where it was sent by rail to Skopje (aka Skoplje and Uskub). It was then flown from Skopje to London via Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, Nuremberg and Cologne.

a) Registered

The next cover is registered and so has stamps to the value of 11d being made up of the postal rate of 8d plus 3d registration fee.

It is postmarked 1 July in Wellington and has a receiving mark in Ibstock, Leicester dated 12 August 1930. That ties in with the flight arriving in London on 11 August.

This cover is addressed to W E Wheatcroft, one of a small number of enthusiasts at that time who regularly sent covers on inaugural flights. There is an article about him in Air Mail News [7].

b) To Switzerland

This cover is postmarked in Christchurch on 8 July and is addressed to Switzerland. It has a mixed franking of 9½d in New Zealand stamps plus 2d (unfranked) in British stamps. This is made up of 7d Karachi - London airmail, 2½d ordinary postage to Switzerland while the 2d in British stamps is the airmail fee from London to Basle.

An almost identical cover is shown in Walker [2].

It is interesting to note that if this cover had been sent to UK by sea and flown to Switzerland prior to 1 July 1930, it would have been necessary for it to have this mixed franking of the surface rate in New Zealand stamps and the London - Basle airmail fee in UK stamps. However, that was now unnecessary as New Zealand stamps could now be used to prepay postage on overseas flights.

It is clear that the intention was for this cover to be flown to London and then flown from there to Basle. As the flight was through central Europe, an alternative was for it to have been offloaded at Vienna or Nuremburg and railed to Lucerne from there. To support that view, I recently saw a cover on eBay from New Zealand postmarked 1 July 1930 and addressed to Luxemburg where it was backstamped on 12 August. It had a Cologne transit mark, indicating that it was offloaded there before being sent to Luxemburg by surface. Unfortunately I was outbid!

c) Also flown Adelaide - Perth

Letters could in addition be flown by West Australian Airways from Adelaide to Perth at a further cost of 4d per ½oz. giving a combined postage rate of 1/-. Whereas mail flown only on the Karachi - London service did not leave New Zealand until 11 July, mail that was to be flown Adelaide - Perth left on 4 July.

Use of the Adelaide - Perth air mail service meant that mail posted in Sydney on a Friday could catch up at Fremantle with mail that had left Sydney by sea for Colombo on the previous Wednesday. The mail was railed from Sydney to Adelaide and the Adelaide - Perth air mail service left Adelaide on a Sunday to connect on Monday with the mail steamer for Colombo [8].

This is one of 10 letters from the first acceptance of air mail from New Zealand that was flown on both the Adelaide - Perth and the Karachi - London service. It has the correct franking of 1/-.

The postmark is 1 July 1930 in Wellington from where it was sent to Sydney on 4 July on the SS Maunganui. It was then sent from Sydney by rail to Adelaide, flown Adelaide - Perth on 13 - 14 July, left Fremantle on Monday 14 July for Colombo from where it was sent by surface to Karachi.

It was flown from Karachi by Imperial Airways on Tuesday 29 July. According to Wingent [6], that flight arrived in London on Monday 4 August and so delivery in Sutton Coldfield would be expected on 5 August. However, it has a Sutton Coldfield arrival mark of 7 August.

The recipient is Francis Field, a prominent aerophilately dealer and publisher, and the arrival mark would have been applied by favour by the local postmaster. So perhaps it was a couple of days before Francis Field collected the mail, added the ½d stamp and had it postmarked. The important point is that it proves that it was carried on an earlier flight from Karachi than the mail from New Zealand that had not been flown on the Adelaide - Perth service as that mail did not arrive in London until 11 August.

Later Flight: August 1930

According to Walker, only 152 items were sent from New Zealand via the combined Adelaide - Perth and Karachi - London services in the first year which averages at only about three on each flight. Examples like this one are therefore uncommon. It is always interesting to have proof that a service was actually used by the public and that covers exist other than those flown on the first flight.

This cover is postmarked on 6 August, 1930 and would be flown Adelaide - Perth on 17-18 August and Karachi - London on 2 - 8 September. There is a manuscript on the back stating that it was received on 9 September.

It is only franked by 11d in stamps. It is not surprising that there was confusion regarding the postage which was 7d Karachi - London. The Adelaide - Perth rate was 4d if addressed to the UK, but 3d for letters addressed to Perth. That extra 1d might reasonably be assumed to cover the surface rate while in facta further 1d was required.

First experimental extension to Australia, April 1931

a) to New Zealand

In April - May 1931, Imperial Airways planned two experimental extensions of the London - Karachi airmail service to Melbourne and return. This was the first official air mail between Great Britain and Australia.

The Imperial Airways service to Karachi had been extended to Delhi in December 1929. There were Qantas services from Brisbane and an Australian National Airways (ANA) service from Brisbane to Melbourne. The plan was to connect these services with Imperial Airways flying from Delhi to Darwin and Qantas from Darwin to Brisbane.

The example registered letter is postmarked Birmingham on 2 April 1931 and is addressed to New Zealand.

The postage rate for the flight was 1 shilling and fourpence per ½ oz. The letter has franking of 1 shilling and sevenpence which includes 3d for the registration fee.

The flight left Croydon Airport (London) on 4 April on the regular route to Delhi. The mail arrived in Alexandria on 8 April, Karachi on 12 April, Delhi and Allahabad on 13 April, Calcutta and Akyab on 14 April, Rangoon and Victoria Point on 15 April, Alor Star and Singapore on 16 April, Samarang on the 17th and Sourabaya on 18 April [6]. The DH 66 City of Cairo then crashed at Koepang (Kupang) in Timor in the Dutch East Indies on 19 April.

Kingsford Smith, with G U Scotty Allan as co-pilot, flew the Southern Cross from Sydney to Koepang on 21-24 April. They picked up the mail and flew it to Darwin on 25 April. The mail was then flown to Brisbane by Qantas on 27-28 April and by ANA to Sydney on 29 April.

The New Zealand mail was forwarded from Sydney by sea and arrived on 5 May.

b) from New Zealand

The return flight for London left Melbourne on 23 April with the mail from New Zealand leaving Wellington on 17 April and joining the flight at Sydney on 24 April.

Only 229 ordinary and 106 registered letters were sent from New Zealand. The example registered letter is postmarked Auckland on 16 April and has franking of 2/6 made up as follows: 2d ordinary postage (the rate had been increased from 1d in March 1931), 2/- air mail to Great Britain, 3d registration fee, 1d late fee.

The cover is backstamped 21 April in Sydney when a special cachet was applied. There is no London backstamp.

The New Zealand mail was carried by ANA from Sydney to Brisbane on 24 April and then by Qantas from Brisbane to Darwin, on 25 - 26 April.

The plan had been for the Imperial Airways DH 66 to fly the mails from Darwin, but as it had crashed at Koepang and Imperial Airways had no replacement aircraft, Kingsford Smith and Allan, who had arrived in Darwin from Koepang on the 25th, flew the mail from Darwin to Akyab in Burma on 27 April - 3 May.

At Akyab, on 3 May, the mail was transferred to the Imperial Airways DH 66 City of Karachi and flown to Delhi, arriving on 5 May. From Delhi it joined the regular Imperial Airways flight to London where it eventually arrived on 14 May.

Second experimental extension to Australia, April - May 1931

a) to New Zealand

The second experimental airmail left London on 25 April and was flown on the regular Eastern Route to Delhi. The DH 66 Hercules City of Karachi had arrived in Delhi on 5 May from Akyab with the mail from the return flight of the first experimental airmail. The mail was exchanged and the City of Karachi immediately returned that day (via Allabad) to Calcutta. It was then flown to Akyab on 6 May.

The mail was then flown from Akyab to Darwin from 6 to 11 May by Kingsford Smith and Scotty Allan in the Southern Cross. From Darwin it was flown to Brisbane on 12 -13 May by Qantas and then by ANA to Sydney on 14 May with P G Taylor as pilot. Mail arrived in New Zealand on 18 May.

b) from New Zealand

There were 266 acceptances from New Zealand for the second return flight and they left Auckland for Sydney on 8 May 1931. This cover is postmarked Christchurch on 6 May. As with the first return flight, the postage rate was 2/2 made up of 2d ordinary postage and 2/- airmail fee. The flight left Melbourne on 15 May and the New Zealand mail joined at Sydney on the 16th. The Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane leg was flown by ANA in with Jim Mollison as pilot.

Qantas flew the leg from Brisbane to Darwin on May 17-18. The pilot was Hudson Fysh, Managing Director and co-founder of Qantas. This was the last time he flew a scheduled service and the cover has his autograph.

By this time, Imperial Airways had purchased a replacement DH 66 and it flew the leg from Darwin to Delhi (May 19 - 26). The mail connected with the scheduled flight from Delhi on May 27 and was flown to Cairo where it arrived on 30 May.

The flight from Alexandria on May 31 was only the second on a new route. It was by Short Kent flying boat to Genoa via Crete, Athens, Corfu and Naples. However, the flight was delayed for two days in Corfu [6] and so it was June 3 before it arrived in Genoa. The mail was sent by overnight rail from Genoa to Basle and then flown to London where it arrived on 4 June [6, 9]. That corresponds with the Sutton Coldfield ½d paid mark of 5 June on the above cover.

First New Zealand airmail stamps, November 1931

The next cover is routed Karachi-London and dated 11 November, 1931 in Christchurch. It contains the first use of the 7d value of the special airmail stamps issued on 10 November 1931 on the Karachi - London route. The surface postal rate had been increased to 2d in March 1931 and so the total postage rate was now 9d. The mail arrived in London on 17 December [9].

The special Christmas Greetings envelope was produced by the Air Mail Society of New Zealand for use in conjuction with the All-Australian Christmas flight to the UK whose mail left New Zealand on the same day, namely 13 November.

There had been a major change in the Karachi - London air mail service in October 1931. The route from Baghdad was now to Tiberias and from there by car to Haifa. From Haifa, the mail was flown to Brindisi via Castelrosso, Corfu and Athens. From Brindisi, it was sent by rail to Paris and then flown to London.

The route from New Zealand to Karachi was by sea to Sydney and then via Fremantle (Perth) in Western Australia to Colombo (in modern Sri Lanka) and on to Karachi by surface mail.

a) also flown Adelaide - Perth

The next cover was also sent from Christchurch to the same person, but is routed Adelaide - Perth in addition to Karachi-London.

It was flown Adelaide to Perth on 21-22 November and then went by surface to Karachi from where it was flown to London on 10 - 17 December [6]. Use of the Adelaide - Perth airmail did not therefore speed up its journey.

In addition to the 9d postage on the first cover, it contains the 4d airmail stamp to cover the Adelaide - Perth postage.

Some airmail stamps were sold by mistake in Highfield on 9 November and most were used on covers routed for the Karachi London service.

b) also flown Christchurch - Auckland and Adelaide - Perth

This cover has routing instructions for it to be flown on three different flights: Christchurch - Auckland on the special New Zealand internal Christmas flight of 12 November; Adelaide - Perth on 21-22 November and Karachi - London on 10 - 17 December 1931.

It is correctly franked with the complete set of airmail stamps: the 3d pays for the internal New Zealand flight, the 4d for Adelaide - Perth and the 7d for Karachi - London. In addition, the 2d GV covers the surface rate.

Commercial flight, postmarked 14 November 1931

Many early flight covers are philatelic in nature and sent on first flights. It is therefore always interesting to see covers sent on second flights.

This cover is postmarked in Christchurch on 14 November, 1931 and so was presumably flown on the flight that left Karachi on 16 December and arrived in London on 23 December; just in time for Christmas.

1932 flights

a) to UK

The next cover was flown Adelaide - Perth and Karachi - London. It is postmarked Wellington on 5 January 1932.

It is franked with a complete set of the 1931 airmail set. The postage was 2d surface plus 4d Adelaide - Perth and 7d Karachi - London and so it is overfranked by 1d.

It is likely to have been flown Adelaide - Perth on 16-17 January and Karachi - London on 3 -11 February.

b) To Holland

The next cover is addressed to Holland and is franked with a 2½d stamp in addition to the 7d airmail. That was the surface rate to non-Empire countries.

It is postmarked 23 April 1932 and so would have been flown on either the flight that left Karachi on either 18 or 25 May. It would be flown to London arriving on 24 or 31 May and then carried from there to Holland.

There had been a further change in the route of flights that left Karachi from 20 April 1932 in that they made a stop at Limassol (Cyprus) and Rhodes. That continued until the flight that left on 28 September. However, according to Wingent [6], the flights of 24 and 31 May were both routed via Cairo.

c) To Greece

Mail could be sent from New Zealand to intermediate destinations on the Karachi - London route. This cover, postmarked 28 July 1932, was sent to Greece.

It has an interesting Greek arrival cachet and a smudged arrival datestamp that appears to be 28 August. That is the arrival date in Athens of the flight that left Karachi on 24 August [6]. There is also an E20 in a circle on the back, but I am not sure what that indicates.

The recipient is Drossos, a well known Greek aerophilatelic dealer, but there does not seem to be any special philatelic reason for the flight. The first New Zealand acceptances for Africa were just before this date: the first acceptance from Auckland was flown from Karachi on 27 July and the first acceptance from Wellington on 11 August 1932.

Change of route, October 1932

For the flight leaving London on 1 October 1932, the route was changed from the Persian to the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf and Handley Page HP 42 airliners were introduced on the route to Karachi.

Another change was that Rhodes and Limassol were dropped from the route from Athens and replaced by Castelrosso. Also, the car journey from Haifa to Tiberias was no longer necessary as the Kent flying boats now flew to Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) where passengers were transferred to the HP 42 airliners.

The first flight from Karachi on the new route left on 5 October and arrived in London on 12 October.

This cover is postmarked in Wellington on 22 September and, as it was redirected, has a London postmark on 25 October. It was therefore flown on the third flight on the new route from Karachi which left on 19 October and arrived in London on 25 October.

The surface rate had been reduced back to 1d in the middle of 1932 and so the cover is correctly franked with 7d for Karachi - London and 1d surface.

1933 Flight: Late fee

Acceptance of letters for a sailing of the trans-Tasman steamer closed several hours before the boat sailed. However, letters were still accepted on payment of a special late fee.

The cover is routed Per Air Mail Via Australia and so would be sent to Sydney by sea and then sent to Karachi by surface mail and flown from Karachi to London.

The cover is postmarked Wellington 29 November 1933 with a special LATE FEE cancellation.

The surface rate at that time was 1d and so the postage is made up of 7d Karachi-London airmail, 1d surface mail and 1d late fee.

There had been further changes to the Karachi - London route in January 1933, when the route from Baghdad to Athens reverted to being via Gaza, Cairo, Alexandria and Crete.

Trans-Tasman + Karachi - London, 1934

a) First flight, February

The next cover is routed Adelaide - Perth and Karachi - London as well as being carried on the first trans-Tasman flight on 17 February 1934. It has the correct franking of 1/6. The trans-Tasman rate of 7d covered onward surface delivery to the UK. The extra rate for the Perth-Adelaide airmail service was 4d while the Karachi-London airmail service was 7d.

The backstamp shows that it had arrived in Sydney on Saturday 17 February.

From 6 September 1930, the Adelaide - Perth service left on a Saturday rather than Sunday as before [8]. This cover would therefore not be flown from Adelaide until the following Saturday (24 February) arriving in Perth on 25 February and connecting with the boat from Fremantle on 26 February. It was then flown on the IA flight that left Karachi on 15 March and arrived in London on 22 March [6].

That corresponds with a manuscript on the back of the cover stating that it was received in Glasgow on 23 March. So it was 34 days in transit after leaving New Zealand. A cover to the same address sent via US airmail around the same time was only 30 days in transit.

On this occasion, the Adelaide - Perth air mail service did not speed up the mail, trans-Tasman. covers addressed to the UK and routed only on the Karachi - London service, also arrived in London on 22 March. Walker [2] states that the arrival date is unknown.

b) April 1934

This next cover was flown on Ulm's second trans-Tasman flight on 14 April.

It is addressed to England. From Sydney it was taken to Karachi by surface and then flown on the Karachi - London airmail service from 9 - 17 May which required the second 7d stamp [6].

The route from Fremantle was by sea to Colombo and from there by surface to Karachi. According to [5], after October 1932, an air mail service by Tata Sons Ltd was available for the Madras - Karachi leg of the route from Colombo, but I have not seen any mention of it being used to expedite mail to/from Australia and New Zealand.

In December 1934, the Empire Air Service was extended to Australia and that then became the standard airmail route from New Zealand although, of course, the New Zealand to Australia leg was still by sea.

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All scans were made by the author.
[1] London to Australia via Karachi, 1929, Bill Legg, Air Mail News, vol 47, pp 254-6, February 2005.
[2] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by Douglas A Walker, Air Mail Society of New Zealand
[3] Airmail to New Zealand via Karachi, March 1929, Robert G Clark, The Kiwi, vol 54, no 3, pp54-55, May 2005.
[4] K C Sanford, Air Crash Mail of Imperial Airways and Predecessor Airlines, published by Stuart Rossiter Trust Fund, 2003.
[5] The Route from Ceylon to Karachi in 1935, Air Mail News, vol 45, pp 245-6, February 2003.
[6] Aircraft Movements on Imperial Airways' Eastern Route, Vol 1, 1927 - 1937, Peter Wingent, Winchester 1999.
[7] Uncle Will and his Airmail Friends, Stan Wheatcroft, Air Mail News, vol 48, pp 29-40, May 2005.
[8] W.H. Legg, Aspects of the London-Karachi and the Perth-Adelaide Routes, Air Mail News, vol 44, pp 106-116, August 2001 and pp 178-183, November 2001.
[9] The Postal History of British Air Mails, E B Proud, 1991.

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