New Zealand and Dependencies ‑ A Philatelic Bibliography by David R Beech, Allan P Berry and Robin M Startup, ISBN 0476-00516-7, hard cover xvi+288 pages, available from Allan P. Berry, 238 Waikiekie Road, Thames, New Zealand. Email apberry@wave.co.nz Price NZ$80, plus p and p NZ$5 within New Zealand, NZ$14 to Australia, NZ$29 to United States and NZ$$32 elsewhere.

Bibliographies are useful resources, providing the philatelic student with ideas for further research. New Zealand and Dependencies – a Philatelic Bibliography is obviously useful to students of New Zealand philately, but it would be an understatement to say the publication merely serves this purpose. The Bibliography is an extraordinary compilation of sources available to New Zealand enthusiasts.

It represents the combined work of three erudite philatelists – David Beech, Head of Philatelic Collections at the British Library; Allan Berry, who for over 20 years edited the Kiwi for the NZ Society of GB; and Robin Startup, whose prolific output includes over 2,000 articles in the Mail Coach and other journals.

New Zealand has been well-represented in philatelic literature and this is made clear enough by the listing of 700 or so monograph titles in Section 1. (Robin Startup’s works account for 64 of these titles.) Section 2 deals with “Manuscripts and grey literature”, an intriguing listing of unpublished and semi-published works. This section includes theses, minute books, display notes and collection photocopies. Section 3 covers “Background literature – national and local histories of the post” and this section draws attention to non-philatelic works that contain substantial references to postal matters. (Edith Hopper’s Hoppertunity Knocks, the autobiography of Whangaparaoa’s postmistress from 1926-46, sounds fascinating!)

Section 4 is a cross index, which most usefully draws together subject themes from the first three sections of the bibliography. For the researcher, this is particularly helpful way of following leads. Periodicals in Section 5 involves publications whose scope is substantially New Zealand and Dependencies philately. There are around 200 periodicals listed here. Section 6 is Stamp Catalogues and there is a surprisingly long list of these. Section 7 is Auction and sales catalogues, which the authors consider to be a compilation of “material of importance.” Section 8 is Exhibition Literature and it is a reminder of how active New Zealanders have been that 100 exhibitions and displays are chronicled since 1980.

Occupying 121 pages, Sections 9 and 10 deal with Official Publications, providing an exhaustive list of titles. It is extraordinary to study the detailed listings in these sections. The more significant works – annual reports, inquiries, guides and legislation – are covered in chronological listings. (The list of postal legislation from 1842 to 1998 alone provides the basis of solid research.) However, the long listings of ephemeral publications from government authorities generate wonderment that it has been possible to collect and record all these. One could hardly imagine anyone producing a counterpart listing of Australian official publications. Finally, Section 11 Commercial postal operator publications and Section 12 Compact discs and video tapes provide a reminder of how modern developments have impacted on the hobby.

It is not difficult to see why the New Zealand bibliography work could never have been titled “A Select Bibliography!”

Published by kind permission of the author
First published in Philately from Australia (June 2005)