item details
Overview
This philatelic 'cinderella' [unofficial postage stamp] promoted the Wellington Queen Carnival, held in June 1915 to raise funds for wounded soldiers. The stamp was sold for 3 pence, and bears an image of a wounded New Zealand soldier bearing the New Zealand flag.
Community Queen Carnivals
Queen carnivals were extremely popular events in New Zealand in 1915 and raised huge amounts of money for war causes. They were pageants of a kind where young women competed to raise money; the community paid to cast a vote for their preferred candidate and whoever raised the most was crowned 'Queen'. They provided much entertainment by at once celebrating and subverting shared values of British rule and royal ritual through role reversals and fancy dress.
But as the war drew on, such frivolous entertainment in the name of a noble cause became controversial. Parts of the community, especially churches, asked: how much fun was too much fun for those not fighting? Carnivals were seen as disrespectful, Carnival lotteries and raffles also considered immoral by churches. However, carnival organisers and patriotic committee leaders argued that such events boosted spirits in the current climate of loss and anxiety wrought by the conflict.