Although there was an experimental official airmail flight to the United States in 1938, a regular New Zealand - USA airmail service did not start until 1940. However, mail from New Zealand could connect with airmail services provided by other countries, including the USA and Canada.
Before July 1930, the air mail surcharge had to be paid in the stamps of the country providing the airmail service while, from 1 July 1930, the cost was prepaid in New Zealand stamps.
Mixed Franking for US Airmail pre July 1930
Cook Islands to USA, 1928
Before July 1930, letters had to have a mixed franking of stamps: the airmail surcharge was paid in the stamps of the country providing the airmail service, while the surface rate was in the stamps of the country where the mail originated.
An example is the following cover from the Cook Islands to the USA in 1928. At that time, New Zealand stamps were not accepted for payment of the airmail surcharge in the USA.
This cover is addressed to Cleveland, Ohio and was sent from Rarotonga (Cook Islands), a New Zealand Dependency. It is franked with a New Zealand George V 3d overprinted Rarotonga together with a US 10c airmail stamp.
The 3d stamp was postmarked in Rarotonga on 2 May 1928 while the US stamp was postmarked in San Francisco on 8 June. There are two Cleveland backstamps of 11 June and it was presumably flown there from San Francisco by US air services. I assume that the route from the Cook Islands to the USA was by sea via New Zealand.
The US domestic airmail rate had been set at 10c on 1 February 1927 and from 1 June 1927 that was also the airmail surcharge for mail from abroad. On 1 August 1928, the domestic airmail rate was reduced to 5c while the airmail surcharge for mail from abroad was reduced to 4c [1]. The above cover is at the 10c rate while the next cover is at the reduced rate.
New Zealand to New York in 1929
This letter from New Zealand to New York is postmarked in Auckland on 23 December 1929.
It has a mixed franking of a 1d New Zealand stamp to cover the surface rate and 5c in US stamps to cover the US airmail surcharge. It is interesting to note that both the New Zealand and the US stamps are postmarked in Auckland. In the previous example, the US stamp was not postmarked until arrival in the US.
This cover would have been carried to San Francisco by ship and flown from there. The US term for this was to accelerate mail delivery.
As you might expect, it was a far from simple process to determine the required foreign rate and to acquire the necessary foreign postage stamps. Such mixed frankings are therefore unusual.
That arrangement could not continue if international air mail was to become commonplace and so, at the Universal Postal Union Convention held in London in 1929 an international agreement was reached that prepayment could be made in the stamps of country from which the letter orginated. This came into force on 1 July 1930.
I have been unable to find other examples of 1920s mixed franking
airmails from New Zealand and have written an article describing
the ones shown here [2].
Crewe shows a 1925 cover with mixed franking from Hong Kong flown by internal US
mail services [4] and an article by Legg describes such mail from Australia [6].
Air Mail from USA and Canada 1926 - 1930
1926
Mail could be flown internally in the USA and then sent by sea to New Zealand from San Francisco.
This 1926 cover addressed to Hastings in New Zealand is postmarked on 9 June 1926 in Claremont, New Hampshire and has a San Francisco transit mark on 11 June. It is franked by a 24c airmail stamp to cover the airmail surcharge and 5c to cover the surface rate.
It has the manuscript Air Mail via New York - San Francisco.
That route passed through three zones, each of which in 1926
cost 8c.
1927
The next cover is addressed to New Zealand and is postmarked at 4.30pm on 25 August 1927 in Portland, Oregon. There is a San Francisco backstamp the next day at 2.30pm on 26 August and a Via Air Mail cachet in purple.
Portland to San Francisco was part of air mail route CAM 8 which was from Seattle to Los Angeles and had been operated by Pacific Air Transport since September 1926.
The cover is franked with 10c which I would have thought only paid the air mail fee
and not the surface fee to New Zealand.
1928
This cover was sent on the first flight from Galveston, Texas to Dallas on 6 February 1928 and is addressed to Fielding in New Zealand. As well as a 5c stamp to cover the surface rate, it is franked with a 10c US airmail stamp, the US airmail surcharge from February 1927 until August 1928.
It has a San Francisco transit mark on 9 February and a Fielding
postmark on 28 February due to it being re-directed to Dannevirke.
1929
This cover is postmarked in St Petersburg, Florida on 5 February 1929 and addressed to Dunedin, but there are no transit marks.
On 1 August 1928, the domestic airmail rate was reduced to 5c while the rate for air mail addressed abroad was reduced to 4c airmail surcharge plus the surface rate [1]. This cover is franked with 2c and 1c ordinary stamps plus 5c airmail. Both the 1c and the 5c stamps have plate control numbers in the margin.
The first passenger carrying air service from
St. Petersburg was as early as 1914 when the
St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line carried passengers between Tampa and
St. Petersburg.
1930
This cover was flown on the first regular flight from Medicine Hat, Alberta to Regina in Saskatchewan by the Prairie Air Mail service of Western Canada Airways.
It was postmarked in Medicine Hat at 2 am on 3 March, 1930 and then backstamped at 8 am in Regina. This was part of a new airmail service between Calgary and Winnipeg. The route was Calgary - Medicine Hat - Moose Jaw - Regina - Winnipeg and was the first regular night airmail service in Canada.
The cover was then sent from Canada to New Zealand by sea,
presumably from Vancouver although, if that was the case, the airmail flight was
actually in the wrong direction.
Prepayment in New Zealand Stamps now allowed, July 1930
Mail prepaid in New Zealand stamps was first accepted for US and Canadian airmail services in July 1930. Mail was also accepted at that time on the Karachi - London and Adelaide - Perth airmail routes.
To Canada via US airmail, July 1930
Mail steamers from New Zealand left once a fortnight for either San Francisco or Vancouver. The first mail to use either US or Canadian airmail services with the cost prepaid in New Zealand stamps left Wellington for San Francisco on the S.S. Makura on 15 July 1930. A total of only 48 items was sent to all destinations.
This cover is postmarked on 14 July in Christchurch and is addressed to Toronto and so was flown on both US and Canadian airmail services. It is franked with 5d made up of 4d airmail fee plus 1d surface postage.
On arrival in San Francisco, mail that was then to be flown was sent by ferry across San Francisco Bay to Oakland Airport. The purple cachet Ferry Station was applied to this mail.
This cover would be flown on route CAM 18 from San Francisco to
Chicago and from there by National Air Transport to Detroit and from
there by Canadian Airways to Toronto where it was
backstamped on 4 August.
To UK via Canadian airmail, July 1930
The first acceptance via Vancouver left Auckland a fortnight later on 29 July on the S.S. Niagara.
This cover is postmarked in Christchurch on 26 July 1930 and is addressed to the UK with the routing via Canadian Air Services.
It left New Zealand for Vancouver on 29 July. The likely route is that it was then sent by rail to Calgary, flown from there to Winnipeg, then to Toronto by rail before being flown to Montreal. From 1927, the Canadian postal authorities had inaugurated a summer airmail service from Montreal to Rimouski which is in the St Lawrence Estuary [3]. Mail was transferred at Rimouski to trans-Atlantic steamers and that is likely to have happened with this cover.
The cover had arrived in Sutton Coldfield by 27 August. It was Francis Field's practice to affix a ½d stamp and get it postmarked to prove the arrival date.
It should be noted that both the air mail label and the manuscript have been crossed out by two parallel purple lines. This was applied after the last air mail leg to indicate that the rest of the journey was by surface mail.
A similar cover to Sutton Coldfield is shown in Walker [5].
Later flight: To UK via Canadian airmail, December 1930
This next cover was also sent to the UK via the Canadian Air Mail service and is postmarked in Timaru on 12 December, 1930.
It would have been sent from Auckland to Vancouver on the RMS Aorangi which left on 16 December [10] and travelled from Vancouver to Montreal on the same route as the previous cover. However, it would not go on the airmail service to Rimouski as that service only ran in the summer.
It is from Alex Paterson and looks highly philatelic, but I am not aware of
there being anything special about the date.
Again, the air mail label has been crossed out.
That would have been to indicate that the trans-Atlantic leg was by sea.
First use of New Zealand airmail stamps, November 1931
The first New Zealand airmail stamps were issued on 10 November 1931 and the first acceptances for airmail flights in North America left Auckland on the SS Aorangi on 17 November and arrived in Vancouver on 4 December.
This cover has the routing instructions Via Canada. Mail to be flown on Canadian Air Mail Services would be sent by rail to Calgary and flown from there on the route: Calgary - Lethbridge - Medicine Hat - Moose Jaw - Regina - Winnipeg. From Winnipeg, the mail is likely to have been flown to Pembina in the USA and from there to Chicago by CAM Route 9.
Mail to be flown on US Air Mail Services would have been landed at Victoria (in British Columbia) and flown to Seattle where it would enter the US Air Mail network. Mail for the eastern US would have been flown to Salt Lake City and from there on CAM Route 18 to Chicago.
The cover is addressed to the UK. Both the air mail etiquette and the routing instructions via Canada have been crossed out with a single pair of parallel purple lines which would have been applied when the air mail part of the journey was over. According to Walker [5], this termination cachet was applied in an identical fashion to mail for the UK that had been routed by US Air Mail Services or by Canadian Air Mail Services. He therefore suggests that both groups were sent by sea from New York with, in both cases, the final part of their North American flight being Chicago - New York.
The postage rate had gone up and the cover has franking of 7d - 2d ordinary postage and 5d
airmail.
On arrival in the UK, a ½d stamp was added to the cover to get an arrival date
postmark which is 18 December 1931.
Later flights
Registered cover to Germany, 1933
The USA and Canada had an arrangement whereby mail would be carried on either postal service using whatever route took the least time. Mail from Vancouver entered the US postal system at Seattle. The service from Victoria on Vancouver Island to Seattle was "all up", i.e. all letters were sent by air mail.
This registered airmail to Germany contains no routing instructions, but has both Seattle and New York backstamps.
It is postmarked Dunedin on 10 November, 1933 and was carried from Auckland to Vancouver on the SS Aorangi on 14 November [10]. It was then flown from Victoria to Seattle (backstamped December 1) before being flown to New York (backstamped December 3). It was carried by sea to Europe where it was backstamped in Germany on December 13 and so was 34 days in transit.
Although it has no routing instructions, it is franked with 10d which includes 3d registration fee leaving 7d for the American airmail fee plus surface to Germany. It would therefore be clear to the postal authorities that it was intended to go via the USA as it does not have sufficient franking for the Karachi - London service where the airmail fee was 7d plus 2½d surface to Germany.
Cover to Scotland, December 1933
This cover is postmarked in Gisborne on 18th December 1933 and is addressed to Edinburgh. It has no routing instructions and is franked with 7d which is 1d less than the rate via the Karachi - London service.
There is a Ferry Station cachet on the back which was applied in San Francisco to mail that was sent by ferry across San Francisco Bay to Oakland Airport. This proves that it was sent via the USA and flown by internal US mail services. (The next sailing from Wellington was on 26 December on SS Maunganui [10].) New Zealand - US and US - UK was by sea.
It is not clear that this was the intention of the sender as the next cover indicates that the
postage rate via US air mail was 6d.
Cover to Scotland, 1934
Mail could be explicitly routed via USA. This cover to Glasgow has the instruction By U.S. Air Mail. It is postmarked Wellington at 1.30 pm on 20 February 1934, only a few days after the first trans-Tasman flight to Australia. The mail for the SS Maunganui (bound for San Francisco) closed in Wellington at 2pm on 20 February [10].
A note on the back states that it arrived at 9a.m. in Glasgow on 22 March and so was 30 days in transit. There is no backstamp. Sending it by air in USA did not speed up the journey as the ordinary mail sent on the SS Maunganui arrived in London on 21 March [10].
It is franked with 6d.
A cover also with 6d franking and postmarked in Dunedin on 5 October 1934
is described by Shelton [7].
It had no routing instructions and had the added cachet
Paid for United States Airmail Service Only on two lines in purple.
There was some correspondence on this topic with the consensus being that it was
applied in New Zealand as airmail was supposed to be correctly routed via
Karachi or USA [8].
As Shelton's cover had insufficient postage for the Karachi service, it must
have been intended for US airmail.
As far as I am aware, no other cover with that cachet has been reported.
Flown in USA, 1937
This cover is franked with 8d, postmarked in Christchurch on 16 August 1937 and is addressed to Chicago. It has per U.S.A. Services in manuscript under the Air Mail etiquette.
It would be sent to San Pedro on the SS Monterey which
left Auckland on 23 August [10] and then flown.
Flown in NZ and in USA, 1938
This cover to the USA was flown from Wellington to Auckland on 25 June 1938, was sent by sea to USA and was then flown by US air mail services. It has the inscription Airmail to Auckland and US Air-Mail from coast.
It is franked with 9d. The additional rate for internal New Zealand airmail was 1d, leaving 8d for surface postage plus US air mail.
With the inauguration of the direct Australia - UK airmail service in December 1934,the US route was little used for UK or European mail from 1935 to 1940 when the regular New Zealand to USA airmail service started.
At the present day, most mail between New Zealand and the UK is routed
via the USA.
Sea to USA, air within: 1940
This cover is postmarked in Wellington on 21 June 1940 and is franked with 1s. According to Startup [9], this was the rate for mail from New Zealand by sea to USA, air within in October 1939.
The cover has appropriate routing instructions: Air Mail from San Francisco. Mail could also be sent from New Zealand to Honolulu by sea and flown from there at a rate of 1s 9d.
Mail could also be sent by air via Australia to UK and then
trans-Atlantic by sea at a rate of 1s 9d and a
cover sent in June 1939 is shown.
That route would no longer be useful in June 1940 as the air mail
route through the Mediterranean closed when Italy entered WW2.
next
All scans were made by the author.
[1] Helbock RW, With a Little Help from Our Friends, Part 2,
La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History, vol. 38, pp. 53-64, 2007.
[2] Clark R, Early Airmail to the United States with
Mixed Franking, The Kiwi, vol 57, pp 60-62, May 2008.
[3] Beith R, The St. Lawrence Seaway Air Mail Service 1927 to 1939,
Air Mail News, vol 51, pp 29-53, May 2008.
[4] Crewe D, Hong Kong Airmails 1924-1941, Hong Kong Study Circle, 2000.
[5] Walker, DA, Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2,
Air Mail Society of New Zealand, 1986.
[6] Legg, B., Airmails Down Under: Pre-paid for carriage by U.S. Airmail,
Airmail News, vol 32, pp 56-59, Sep 1989.
[7] Shelton, JM, An Unrecorded Cachet,
The Kiwi, vol 26, pp 22 and 38, March 1977.
[8] Walker, DA, An Unrecorded Cachet,
The Kiwi, vol 27, pp 126-129, November 1978.
[9] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 3, R.M. Startup, 1997.
[10] Evening Post Wellington 1916-1945, Papers Past,
available at: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast