New Zealand's diverse history through postal items is a passion of leading Tauranga collector Brian Ducker. Photo/John Borren
The internet has emerged as the ironic lifesaver for the hobby of kings - collecting stamps.
As more and more people opt for the immediacy of the internet and social media to communicate with friends and loved ones, public interest had waned in letter writing and those carefully crafted bits of paper on the corner of envelopes.
It meant that stamp collecting has needed to change with the times to remain relevant - a new direction embodied by Tauranga collector Brian Ducker.
"People have the wrong impression of stamp collectors."
Although the Tauranga Stamp Club had a lot of grey-headed members in its ranks, he said it did not need to be that way once people understood how much the hobby of their childhood had moved on.
Devotees still poured over the minutiae of stamps, always seeking to expand their collections with that scarce and valuable variety.
But for Mr Ducker, the hobby meant exploring history through all postal items such as postcards and interesting envelopes - or covers as they were called in the trade.
And for that, the internet had been his most valuable tool, connecting him with an international marketplace and throwing light on his many postal treasures.
Tauranga postal items and their links with the people and events that had shaped the city's history since the first missionary contacts were what particularly interested Mr Ducker.
Every page of the volumes that made up his Tauranga collection threw up a fascinating aspect of history.
"It is very similar to an historian exploring the past. It is about reopening old connections and making new ones, and linking through the broad medium of things postal."
Mr Ducker took obvious pride in his album page that featured a folded and addressed letter written by the Rev Henry Williams, the leader of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand, to the Rev A N Brown, dated April 27, 1835.
The letter was carried from Paihia to Tauranga aboard the schooner Fanny and then taken inland by a runner to the mission station which the Rev Brown had just opened near Te Waharoa Pa on the other side of the Kaimai Range.
Other gems included a letter from William Colenso to the Rev Brown posted from Gisborne in 1860, and a letter to Captain Gilbert Mair posted from Te Papa, Tauranga. Captain Mair was a renowned soldier and adventurer during the New Zealand Wars.
Mr Ducker's covers included the significant period when English troops under General Cameron were in Tauranga in the lead up to the Battle of Gate Pa of 1864. The stamp on an 1863 cover had been cancelled with the postal marking "HQ", or headquarters. The cancellation was used exclusively by General Cameron's headquarters.
A cancellation is a mark applied to a stamp or postal stationery to prevent it being re-used.
Tauranga's first post office was at Charlie Faulkner's store on the foreshore at Otumoetai. Mr Ducker was always on the lookout for stamps with the cancellation TH19. Office 19 represented Tauranga in the Thames Postal District.
His impressive collection of cancelled stamps with local place names included several marked "Muirs Reefs'', the gold mining town that briefly flourished in the Papamoa Hills near Te Puke.
Mr Ducker's other specialty was collecting postcards that featured New Zealand railways and the series of beautiful New Zealand scenic postcards produced by England-based Raphael Tuck.
Sadly, Tauranga did not feature in the Tuck postcards. "We were a very small backwater in those days. Tauranga's isolation was a lot more marked than you would realise."
His collection also featured covers and letters from Tauranga soldiers who served overseas in World War II, with each cover he stumbled across leading to research to build a short history around each soldier and his family.
"There's story upon story upon story, it's a way of re-exploring the past."
Another cover taking pride of place in Mr Ducker's collection was the first airmail to Tauranga flown by pioneer New Zealand aviator George Bolt piloting a Boeing in 1929. Mr Bolt signed the cover.
Mr Ducker's advice to would-be collectors of anything postal was to find a topic that interested them and then "follow your nose".
Tauranga and District Stamp Club
-Meets at the Wesley Centre on Thirteenth Avenue on the second Monday (except January) at 10am and fourth Monday (except December) of every month at 10am and 7.30pm respectively.
-Visitors always welcome.
-Members are welcome to bring any interesting items to meetings.
-Email: bducker@kinect.co.nz
Recent Tauranga Stamp Club talks
(illustrated with collections)
- World War II civilian censorship
- The French in the Pacific
- The development of aerogrammes
- The New Zealand Chalons
- Stamps by New Zealand engravers William Bock and Alfred Cousins