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Overview
This leaflet promoted the 1935 Pictorial Postage-Stamps issue released on 1 May 1935. The idea behind the pictorial stamps was to promote New Zealand abroad, especially to Britain.
The designs for the stamps were chosen from a 1931 public competition. 1500 submissions flooded in. The final 14 designs were all by Pākehā artists. Five stamps featured animals, four stamps focused on Māori subjects, there were three landscapes, one farming image, and one about contact history (Captain Cook).
The leaflet describes the design of each stamp, and the names of the designers. It also describes the kaupapa of the stamp issue which romanticises and patronises Māori, and hides the violence of colonisation:
'In this issue of the New Zealand pictorial postage-stamps Maori subjects predominate, for the reason that the early settlers found in this country a native race skilled in the arts of war and of peace, and possessing personal qualities which eventually made it possible for both races to live on terms of mutual respect and friendliness.
The Maori has been encouraged to maintain many of his customs, and the greatest care taken to preserve all the evidences of his old-time skill in the the fashioning and ornamentation of weapons and articles of general use and adornment. A rich field for the designer has thus been provided, which explains the dominant Maori note in a series of designs adopted by a country predominantly British in race and outlook.'