The
National
Grid

Issue
#7

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Contents

Trespassers Will be Prosecuted: A B-Grade Horror in Four Parts
Luke Wood A patient waiter is no loser: Some notes on dots and their reception
David Bennewith A Report on Publishing
Jonty Valentine Orientation
Tim Veling, Jessica Halliday Best Wishes Nora Gee
Tracey Williams, Taarati Taiaroa Design: What's the Problem?
Noel Waite The Great Barrier Island Pigeon Post Conspiracy
Isabel Rust New Zealand Energy Resources
Amy Yalland

The Great Barrier Island Pigeon Post Conspiracy

Isabel Rust

The Great Barrier Island Pigeon Post Conspiracy – Isabel Rust

It took the loss of 121 lives in the Wairarapa shipwrecking, along with the lure of gold and silver for a speedier means of communication to be established. So began the rise of two rather unique postal services, a bitter rivalry, and a deep paranoia.
Acting as agent for the service, Smales was quick to exploit his control, moving the newly established 'Fricker’s Great Barrier Pigeon Agency' (curiously making no claim to the words ‘post’ or ‘mail’) headquarters from Okupu to Orville— the heart of mining territory.
The New Zealand Herald soon bore what looked to be the innocent announcement of Parkin’s Great Barrier Postal Pigeon Service, but for four words which spilled from the text: ‘security and secrecy guaranteed’. And yet it was not these words which caused controversy, but rather the placid and unsuspecting term ‘post’.
The Department’s reply called for the removal of the word ‘post’ from all matters concerning pigeon post. Perhaps this event and the constant refusal of subsidy from the Postal Department culminated in Smales’ and Gould’s withdrawal.Similarly apprehensive that the service was not likely to be a paying proposition, Parkin soon followed suit, the service landing in the young hands of Mr S. Holden Howie, who adopted the business as a hobby, unaware of the obstacles lying in wait.
The transition of mail from pigeon to proprietor was quickly undertaken, incoming pigeons landing in an ‘electric trap’, which shut on arrival and struck a bell, immediately alerting the proprietor of the mail’s arrival.
Kept in the dark, the New Zealand Post Department knew nothing of the existence of such a stamp. Curiously however one such ‘special post’ stamp strayed somewhat fromNew Zealand waters to arrive neatly in the unsuspecting hands of Messrs Whitfield and Co., stamp dealers of England. Sent with the intention of placing these rather unique and rare stamps on the market in England, such a move might also have threatened to undermine Her Majesty's own network thoughout the Commonwealth. Paranoia did indeed accompany the stamps’ return to NewZealand, the English fearful that a private mail system, delivering ‘secret’ messages was in operation.
What ensued was an unpleasant battle between Mr Howie and the Post Department, concluding only at Howie’s threat of legal action. Though Howie was authorized to continually use stamps for his service, these were no longer permitted to bear the words ‘SPECIAL POST’, enduring only with the carefully overprinted ‘Pigeongram’.
Fricker’s own bid did not stop there. Endeavouring to strike an additional blow, his new stamps coincided with the release of a newly trained fleet of pigeons who bettered Howie’s one-way service by flying both ways.
THE END.