Stamp News Australasia - May 2021

Postal Stationery Welcome to the postal stationery column for May 2021. This month’s column looks at Tonga aerogrammes and free prepaid postcards from Canada Post and Australia Post.

Tonga Aerogrammes Pacific Islands such as Tonga, Fiji, the British Solomon Islands and New Zealand began using air mail lettersheets known as ‘Air Mail Lettercards’ from around 1944.

These lettersheets were unstamped (or formular) forms which required adhesive stamps to be added to pay postage.

The Tongan ‘air mail lettercards’ were of a similar design to those used in Fiji, British Solomon Islands and New Zealand except that they were inscribed ‘TONGA AIR MAIL LETTER CARD’.

Figure 1 shows a form similar to that used in New Zealand in about 1945.

They were most likely printed in New Zealand and were sold at post offices for a small charge. The forms show some variation in colour and other details so that there were likely a number of printings. Unlike most countries Tonga did not set a uniform postage rate (or rates) for ‘air mail letter cards’. For example, in 1 November 1950, the postage rates for air mail lettercards varied from 3d for Fiji, 5d for Australia, 4d for New Zealand, 8d for the UK (via Australia, 1/2 via USA), 8d for USA and up to 1/2 which was the rate to many countries in South America.

Figure 2 shows an ‘Air Mail Lettercard’ used in 1950 from Nukualofa to Figure 1 Tonga Air Mail Lettercard Figure 2 Air Mail Lettercard used in 1950 from Nukualofa to Canada Figure 3 Formular Aerogramme with ‘TONGA POSTAL ADMINISTRATION’ 22 - Stamp News