One hundred and eighteen years ago the first airmail items in New Zealand were not carried by aircraft. Birds - pigeons, were used for the task of transporting messages to and from Great Barrier Island. The messages were written on small, thin pieces of paper called flimsies. They were enclosed in small capsules and attached to the birds. The pigeons were then released to fly to their home loft in Auckland. This service was one of the first pigeongram mail services in the world.
Pigeons were first organised to carry mail in Europe in the 19th century, during the siege of Paris 1870-1871, when the city was closed to all normal methods of correspondence. As a result the carrying of messages by pigeons became increasingly popular, especially before the development of telegraphic services.
Pigeongram posts also existed in Ceylon, India and Great Britain. It was used for conveying messages to isolated areas especially the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Herm. The pigeon post service was also used extensively during WW2 in the communicating and relaying of important news.
In New Zealand the pigeon post existed from 1896 until 1908. Two commercial companies operated between Auckland and Claris on Great Barrier Island. They were the Marotiri Copper Syndicate Pigeongram Service and the Great Barrier Island Pigeongram Service. When the government extended telegraph communication to Great Barrier Island in 1908 the pigeongram service ended.
A display of these postal items and more may be viewed at the Wanganui Stamp & Coin Fair on Sunday, August 9 at the RSA Lounge, St Hill St, from 10am-4pm, entry free.
