Anniversaries 1976

50th Anniversary of the League of Mothers - 6c
The League was founded by Lady Alice Fergusson when a group of seventy women attended her first meeting in the YMCA Hall, Auckland in 1926.  They are not a money raising group but members do all kinds of welfare work in their own areas, such as working with the crippled, deaf, handicapped children, the civilian maimed, driving cars for the blind and working at Welfare Centres.  This stamp features a graphic representation of mother, father, children and baby.

Metric Conversion - 7c
The imperial system of weights and measures which evolved over the centuries in Britain was an inheritance that by the 1970s was being displaced in Britain and her former colonies by the metric system of weights and measures.  Since 1955 there had been a world-wide change towards the exclusive use of the metric system and 131 countries were either metric or going metric in 1976.  New Zealand's decision to change to the metric system was based almost entirely on the necessity to keep in step with her overseas trading partners.  The design features a graphic illustrating from the top:  weight, temperature, measure and capacity.

Centenary of New Plymouth - 8c
This stamp design featured a graphic portrayal of the first emigrant ship, the William Bryan, with Mt Egmont /Taranaki in the background.  On 19 March 1841 the William Bryan hove to in Cloudy Bay off the future site of the New Plymouth settlement.  As an indication of the forethought put into planning of the settlement, the township was surrounded by a large area of trees and pack lands which was known as the Town Belt.  The settlement was constituted a Town Board in 1863 and in 1876 was incorporated as a Borough.

50th Anniversary of the YWCA in New Zealand - 10c
The Young Women's Christian Association in New Zealand is motivated by Christian concern and seeks without discrimination of culture or faith, to bring together people, so that through shared thinking and activity they may develop their potential as individuals and take responsible action in their community and in the world. 

Centenary of the Link into the International Telecommunications Network - 25c
This stamp design illustrates the fact that New Zealand is part of the International Telecommunications Network.  The linking of New Zealand into the International Telecommunications Network was inaugurated with the opening for service of the "Trans-Tasman" telegraph cable on 21 February 1876.  The cable which was laid from Wakapuaka (Cable Bay) near Nelson to La Perouse (Botany Bay) near Sydney marked the first international telecommunications service from New Zealand and the first time that a means of communication was established with Australia.

Stamp bulletin

This stamp issue first appeared in New Zealand Post Stamp Bulletin No. 15 in April 1976.

Acknowledgments: Bulletin scanned and provided by John Biddlecombe of the New Zealand Society of Great Britain. Their web site offers further information useful to those interested in the stamps and postal history of New Zealand. Link: http://www.nzsgb.org.uk/