New Zealand's first daily air mail service was between Christchurch, Ashburton and Timaru and started on 31 January 1921, run by Canterbury (N.Z.) Aviation. It was not commercially successful and ceased in April.
To mark the 10th Anniversary, a special envelope was produced and signed by Capt. Euan Dickson who had been the pilot on the original service.
The covers were all postmarked on 31 January 1931 in Christchurch, but as there was no air mail service at that time in New Zealand, they were sent to Sydney by sea to be flown by Qantas from Cloncurry to Normanton.
As the 4d postage was sufficient for all Australian airmail services,
it is likely that they were flown from Sydney to Brisbane by
ANA and then from Brisbane to Cloncurry by Qantas before being flown from
Cloncurry to Normanton [1].
They were backstamped on arrival in Normanton on 18 February.
back 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
Wingspread by Leo White, Unity Press, Auckland 1941.
[1] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by
Douglas A Walker published by the
Air Mail Society of New Zealand.