On 3 February 1931 there was a devastating earthquake in the Hawkes Bay area killing 161 people in Napier, 93 in Hastings and 2 in Wairoa. As the road had been badly damaged, special emergency flights took place between Gisborne and Hastings, between Hastings and Feilding and Hastings to Auckland in which mail was carried [1].
From Earthquake Area
This cover is postmarked in Hastings although the date in February 1931 is not clear. It is inscribed with the text: A stamp from the earthquake area, Feb. 1931 and is addressed to Pahiatua which is half way between Hastings and Wellington. Pahiatua is quite near Feilding and on 5 February, Flt. Lieut. Burrell flew the mail that had accumulated in Hastings since 3 February to Feilding from where it was distributed.
It is possible that this cover was flown on that flight. Some covers were signed by the pilot and were hand-stamped Emergency Earthquake Air mail. According to [2], all known covers on the various emergency earthquake flights are addressed to Verne, Collins & Co., Christchurch. As they were stamp dealers, it is possible that they organised the signatures and applied the rubber stamps. Mail sent by the general public was not therefore signed or had a handstamp applied.
One of the stamps in the 75th Anniversary Issue in 2006
commemorates the emergency mail flights.
Postscript
On 8 February, Ivan Knight, the managing director of Dominion
Airlines crashed and was killed on one of the emergency flights
while flying the Desoutter monoplane.
As a result, Dominion Airlines ceased operations.
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All scans were made by the author.
[1] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 1 , compiled by Douglas A Walker, 1955
Air Mail Society of New Zealand.
[2] New Zealand Airmail Catalogue, James Stapleton, (3rd Edition edited by Mike
Shand, 2009),
Air Mail Society of New Zealand.