New Zealand, Post Office Seals

New Zealand, Post Office Seals, Images & Found by Mudwiggle.
Found in the North Auckland district of New Zealand, 18mm.

Initials / number // GPO / NZ

From the finder, "All have been found in the North Auckland district of New Zealand.
Goverment Post Office mailbag(?) seals of unknown age, but likely first half of 20th century.
Images are titled according to impression, dots in title indicate illegible text in branch number. eg GPO AK 2801 is GPO NZ seal AK 2801
One, GPO NP 32... is possibly a New Plymouth seal (part of number absent) and has had a double offset crimp. GPO AK P has no number, possibly Central Post Office in Auckland - but that's pure conjecture."

"The New Zealand Post Office was a government department of New Zealand until 1987. It was previously (from 1881 to 1959) named the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department (NZ P&T). The New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department was renamed the New Zealand Post Office in 1959. ... On 1 April 1987, the department was abolished under the Postal Services Act 1987, and three state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were formed, responsible to the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, initially from 14 August 1989 Stan Rodger."

More from Mudwiggle, "I just received this communication from The National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington.
They referred my query regarding New Zealand lead postal seals to an outside expert:

"...The Post Office Mailbag seal – GPO = General Post Office.
The AK 213 is used to identify where in the Auckland postal operation the “sealer” 213 was used - for example the mailroom, the parcels branch, the householder circular dispatch, the airmail section, the overseas mail branch etc.

He referred to two publications – Early History of the New Zealand Post Office (1905) by D Robertson and A History of the Post Office in New Zealand (1964) by Howard Robinson.
Neither had mention covering the sealing of mail bags, nor the switchover from wax to lead.

However from a list put together by the late Robin Startup, the following feature:
July 1910 Sealing wax used for sealing mailbags abolished and replaced by lead seals and hand clamps on the Railway Travelling Post Offices and in main mailrooms. The use of lead instead of wax later extended to all Post Offices.
1 July 1911 Lead sealing, in place of sealing wax, for mailbags introduced at all offices throughout New Zealand. The twine was now knotted within a lead clip clamped together by pressure pliers, in place of molten sealing wax poured over the knot and then stamped with a seal.

From further research it appears that as a result of the Secretary of Post & Telegraph (D Robertson) visiting overseas in 1909, he recommended the “evil-smelling wax-pot could be dispensed with National Library of New Zealand. This would validate the above time period.

It is also likely that the Post Office Circular of the period would also have had information contained in it (although he has not specifically checked this).
There are copies of the 1910 & 1911 Post Office Circulars held at Archives NZ in Auckland and Wellington (with 1911 in Christchurch).

He also had a look at the file listings that have been transferred to Archives NZ and noted – Archway, New Zealand Archives a report on alternatives to lead seals for sealing mail receptacles (1968).
This was at the time when metal and plastic clips were being trialled and at a later period moving to lightweight mailbags led to the sewing of mailbags being sent overseas.

He is not aware of the records relating to the numeric numbering series relating to seals for any postal district/area having survived.

With the removal of sealers & seals shortly after the formation of NZ Post in 1987, the examples in the NZ Post archive have the “telegraphic” office code (generally two or three letters) of each individual Post Office. These codes as well as appearing on telegrams, also appeared on registration and insurance labels.

Originally the list of offices and telegraphic codes were published in the Post Office Guide, but at a point in time there was a separate publication issued “List of Offices” – a copy of which is in Archives NZ Archway record (R20934576)."

Many thanks to Andrew McNiven for updating the NZ Archway links.