New Zealand is distant from other countries. The Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia is two-thirds the width of the Atlantic Ocean and is notorious for sudden violent storms.
That not only meant that air mail is very important to New Zealand external communications, but that it was relatively late (1940) before regular external airmail services were established by Tasman Empire Airways (TEAL).
Although there were few direct airmail flights to or from New Zealand in the 1930s, mail could connect with airmail services in other countries. Both the westward 15,000 mile route to the UK via Australia (known as the Eastern Route!) and the shorter eastward route to the UK via the USA were used.
The flights 1911 - 41
The first mail that arrived in New Zealand after having been flown on part of its journey was the aerial post that had been flown the 21 miles from Hendon to Windsor to commemorate the coronation of King George V in 1911.
Itwas to be many years before there was another mail to
New Zealand that had been flown even on such a small part of its journey.
Airmail to New Zealand could be sent via the Imperial Airways
London-Karachi and the
West Australian Airways
Perth - Adelaide air mail service from 1929
while New Zealand stamps were accepted for the payment of airmail
postage on flights in
Australia,
Canada, USA and on the
Karachi - London service
from 1 July 1930.
There were two experimental airmail flights between Australia and the UK by Imperial Airways in April / May 1931 and mails to and from New Zealand were accepted for each flight.
Mail for New Zealand was also accepted on the KLM Amsterdam - Australia flight in May 1931.
To cater for the use of external airmail services and for the planned internal New Zealand flights, 3d, 4d and 7d airmail stamps were issued on 10 November 1931.
They were used on mail from New Zealand which connected with the All Australian Christmas Airmail to London in November / December 1931. Mail for New Zealand was sent on the return flight in January 1932.
In June 1932, airmail for Africa was accepted from New Zealand. It went by surface to Karachi and was then flown to Cairo where it connected with the Imperial Airways African route.
In 1933, Kingsford Smith and Ulm both made unofficial airmail flights between Australia and New Zealand as they tried to persuade the authorities to agree to an official airmail.
The first official trans-Tasman airmail took place in February 1934. Ulm was the pilot and Allan the co-pilot. There were two further official airmail flights by Ulm and Allan from New Zealand to Australia in April and in July.
The third of these flights continued on to Papua - New Guinea.
In addition, in March 1934 there was an official airmail from New Zealand
to Australia
by Kingsford Smith, and
in April an official airmail
from Australia to New Zealand
by Ulm.
In October 1934, there was an air race from London to Melbourne and, after taking part in it, Hewitt and Kay continued their flight to New Zealand. They carried an unofficial air mail.
A regular Australia - UK service
via Singapore and India was set up in December 1934
by Imperial Airways and Qantas and that became the
standard NZ - UK airmail route.
However, it was 1940 before this route was extended to
New Zealand with
a regular trans-Tasman service.
In May 1935, Kingsford Smith planned a flight from Australia to New Zealand and return to commemorate the Jubilee of George V. The return flight would then connect with the regular Australia - UK airmail. However, the flight from Australia had to be abandoned half way across the Tasman Sea.
In January 1938, there was an experimental official airmail by Pan Am from New Zealand to San Francisco via Hawaii. However, on the return flight, the plane exploded after leaving American Samoa and so a regular service was delayed until 1940.
In March 1938, Clouston and Ricketts flew from the UK to New Zealand and return in a record time. They left London on 15 March, arrived in Blenheim on 21 March and were back in London by 26 March.
On 4 August 1938, the first mails left
Wellington on the Empire Air Mail
Scheme.
The low cost of one and a half pence per half oz from New Zealand
to most parts of the British Empire led to a great increase
in airmail traffic.
However, the New Zealand to Australia leg was still by sea.
From 4 September 1939 the cost of the Empire Air Mail
Scheme was increased twelve-fold to 1/6 per
half oz due to the outbreak of war and that remained the cost to the
UK when the regular trans-Tasman
air link was eventually established in April 1940 by
Tasman Empire Airways.
By this time Imperial Airways had been replaced by BOAC.
In July 1940, a regular airmail route from New Zealand to USA was established by Pan American and with that a through eastward airmail route to the UK.
As the through airmail service to the UK via Australia had been suspended in June 1940 when Italy joined WW II, the combination of the Trans-Tasman route with the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes was now the only through airmail route from Australia to the USA and UK. So for the first time, New Zealand was not at the end of the line.
In November 1941, Fiji was added to the Auckland - San Francisco
route.
However, this did not last long as
the Pan Am trans-Pacific service to the USA was suspended in
December 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
next
All scans were made by the author.
Information on this page is taken from:
Airmails of New Zealand, volume 1 (1955) compiled by Douglas A Walker,
and the New Zealand Airmail Catalogue, (2nd Edition, 1994)
by James Stapleton.
Both are published by the
Air Mail Society of New Zealand