Great Barrier Island Pigeon Post Collection

Te Papa has an extensive collection of stamps and ephemera documenting the history of Great Barrier Island's pigeon-gram service.

The idea for the service came in 1896 when a writer for the New Zealand Herald, reporting from the island, filed his story to the mainland using a pigeon named Ariel. Ariel arrived in Auckland in less than two hours, and her owner Walter Fricker saw an opportunity to establish a regular communication service. In 1897 the Great Barrier Pigeongram Agency began; the first regular airmail service in New Zealand.

Before the pigeon post service was established the only regular connection between the community on Great Barrier Island (90 kilometres northeast of Auckland) and the mainland was provided by a weekly coastal steamer. The island's isolation was highlighted when the SS Wairarapa was wrecked off its coast in 1894, with the loss of 121 lives, and the news took several days to reach the mainland.

Within months of Fricker starting up his Agency there was a rival pigeongram company on the island called The Original Great Barrier Pigeon-gram Service. This company set a precedent by becoming the first to issue stamps to pre-pay the cost of sending messages, an innovation that was unique in the world at the time. However, it was quickly followed by the Agency which issued distinctive and attractive triangular stamps. Stamps from both companies are now highly sought after by collectors. Although unofficial (not issued by the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department) they were effectively the world's earliest airmail stamps, pre-dating the first recorded aeroplane flight by several years.

On the island, pigeongram agencies were established at Port Fitzroy, Okupu, and Whangaparara. Birds were sent over to the island on the weekly steamer and flew back to Auckland with up to five messages per bird written on tissue paper and attached to their legs. Initially the service operated only from Great Barrier Island to Auckland, the reverse route being considered uneconomical. Eventually birds were trained to work in the other direction but it still cost twice as much to send a letter from Auckland as it did to send one from Great Barrier Island (see Patea Mail 31 July 1899, 2).

The service continued until 1908 when the installation of an underwater telegraphic cable made pigeon-grams unnecessary.

Collector Jim Kilgour

This collection of stamps, mail forms, envelopes, flimsies and other material was acquired and collated by philatelist Lewis James Kilgour (1934-2019) over 26 years. Jim exhibited the collection in national and international stamp competitions, and was awarded a range of prizes for it. Jim was deeply involved with philately in New Zealand, helping to stage exhibitions and run local clubs, serving as the Chairman and then Secretary of the New Zealand Philatelic Federation, and acting as the New Zealand Commissioner for international exhibitions in Israel, Brazil, Jakarta, Beijing and Taiwan. In 1983 Jim received the ‘Award of Honour’ from the New Zealand Philatelic Federation for his outstanding service to Philately in New Zealand.

References and further information

Eschner, Kat. 2017. This New Zealand Island’s Pigeon Mail Stamps Are Still Prized. Smithsonian Magazine, November 1. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-zealand-islands-pigeon-mail-stamps-are-still-prized-180965342/

Kilgour, Barbara. 2020. Unpublished biography of Lewis James Kilgour provided to curator.

Kilgour, Jim. 1993. Interview with Helen Jordan. 29 May. Alexander Turnbull Library, OHInt-0104-58.

McClure, Margaret. 2016. Auckland places - Barrier islands. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/postage-stamp/16070/pigeon-post

New Zealand Post. n.d. Centenary of Pigeon-gram. Historical Stamp Issues 1997.  https://collectables.nzpost.co.nz/centenary-of-pigeon-gram/

Walker, Reg. 1941. Lecture presented to the Auckland Philatelic Society on the Great Barrier Island Pigeongram Service. Te Papa, GH006305. https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/294388

White, Margo. 2009. Pigeon. New Zealand Geographic 99. https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/pigeon/