New Zealand Health Stamps. 1947 Set 1+½d,2+1d. SG#690-91.MNH.

Date of Issue:  1 October 1947.

Designer: J Berry, Wellington.

Printer: Waterlow and Sons, England.

Process:  Recess printed - Intaglio.  

The statue of Eros on top of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, in Piccadilly Circus, London was erected in memory of Anthony Ashley-Copper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury,  a great reformer who is remembered particularly for his noble work for the abolition of child labour.  In 1833 he introduced the Factory Act which forbade the employment of young children in factories.

          The 1947 stamps had the inscriptions 'Postage' and 'Revenue' because the 1945 Finance Act authorised Health Stamps could be used to pay the tax on receipts. This was indicated by including the word 'Revenue.' This tax was abolished in 1951, the last year Health Stamps carried the word 'Revenue.'  The health surcharge value was placed up in the bottom right corner of the design picture.

Health stamps are a long-running series of charity stamp issued by New Zealand which include a premium for charitable causes in addition to the charge for postal service. Health stamps were issued annually from 1929 to 2016.

The idea of issuing health stamps in New Zealand originated in the late 1920s. Initial credit is given to a 1926 request by Mr E Nielsen of Norsewood on behalf of his mother that special fundraising for deserving health projects. Letters and articles promoting the idea appeared in newspaper articles in subsequent years, although the official suggestion for the issue of a stamp is credited to the secretary of the Post Office Department, Mr. G. M'Namara.

The stamps were modeled on Christmas Seals, first issued in Denmark in 1904 and subsequently in other countries. While in other countries Christmas Seals were charity labels that could be affixed to mail along with postage stamp, the New Zealand seals combined both postage and charity in a single label.