Personalities of NZ Philately: John Davies - Printer 1862-1889

John Davies was born in England in 1835.   He worked for the London based engraving and printing firm Geo. Virtue & Sons before he joined Perkins Bacon who of course manufactured the plates and printed the first Chalons in 1854.

By 1861 John Richardson had been printing Chalons since 1855 in Auckland under contract, but the demand for stamps had become so large that the government sought a more permanent solution.  They had purchased a printing press and ancillary equipment at the same time as the 1d, 2d and 1/- plates, but this press was still stored in ite original wooden cases.

On August 13 1861 the London Agent John Morrison wrote to Messrs Perkins, Bacon & Co.

“Gentlemen, Referring to the conversation I had with you some time past, about engaging an experienced printer of Postage Stamps to proceed to New Zealand, I will be glad to learn if you have met with a person who would be willing to accept the situation. I may remind you that the person must be of good character and well qualified. Likewise able to do the duties of a clerk, for when not occupied in printing he would be so employed.  A Guarantee under Bond must be given that he will remain with the Government 2 or 3 years at least, also for the faithful performance of his duty during such time. I shall be glad if you will undertake to recommend one or two suitable persons who would call upon me here and learn further particulars about the situations as I am sanguine that your recommendations would be highly satisfactory to the Government of New Zealand.

I have been desired to ascertain if it would be advantageous to print Postage Stamps by means of Lithography. Will you have the goodness to favour me with your opinion as to this? And if it is not advisable, the reasons against such a course being adopted.

I would also avail of this opportunity to state that I have addressed the Honble Colonial Secretary about your account of £129 10/- against the Government of New Zealand. On receiving a reply thereto I shall have pleasure in again communicating with you”.

A reply was written by Perkins Bacon to J. Morrison Esq.

“ The Bearer Mr. John Davies is the only person we have been able to hear of as at all likely to meet the requirements of the Government of New Zealand as a Copper Plate Printer who would be willing & able to fill up his unemployed time as a clerk. We can speak of his capabilities as a Printer, having employed him ourselves & having a very good opinion of him both as a worker & (sic) as a steady respectable man. As to his other qualifications you can judge as well as we can whether he is likely to suit you”.

Davies accepted the post of Stamp Printer at £250 per annum for a contract of three years and sailed on board the Avalanche from The Downs on 14 October 1861. A request had been made to Perkins Bacon for various printing materials that included, ink and seven reams of star watermark paper to be packed to accompany Davies on the voyage.

The ship left The Cape of Good Hope on 21 December 1861 and anchored off North Head, New Zealand Friday, 7 February 1862, berthing at Auckland the following day.

The Postmaster-General’s staff set up a stamp printing office in the Lyceum Building, Altern Rd., Auckland for Davies. It accommodated the Perkins Bacon press that had been in storage; Davies also had access to printing colours that had been sent out in 1855 with the stamps printed in London, plus the materials that had accompanied him on the Avalanche.

During March 1862, John Davies, ‘copper plate printer of Auckland’, made an application for his wife, Maria Elizabeth Davies, to be brought out to New Zealand as an assisted emigrant. Maria duly arrived on the Romulus on 21 October 1862; the Davies established a home in Vincent Lane off Vincent Street in the centre of Auckland. Printing of the Colony’s postage stamps continued in Auckland until the end of 1864.

With the transfer of the seat of Government from Auckland to Wellington, Davies and his equipment were transported to the new capital on the Ladybird, which arrived on 18 March 1865 where he continued to be in the employ of the Postmaster-General’s Department. He made his home in Tinakori Road; his residence required to be of a substantial size, as at the time of his death there were nine living children.

A Stamp Printing Branch of the Government Printing Office was established in December 1866 and John Davies was transferred to this Branch in June 1867.  The Stamp Printing Office rented two small rooms in the Government Printing Office on Lambton Quay, with Davies and the other postage stamp printing staff occupying a ‘separate apartment at the rear of the Printing Office’ Control of Postage Stamp Production, remained in the employ of the Postmaster-General’s Department, but the Government Printer, George Didsbury had to sign a bond accepting responsibility for the security of the operation. Official records contain few references to Davies or the Stamp Printing Branch, but an Auditor-General’s Report of 1874 observes that 9,844,330 postage stamps and 2,564,000 duty stamps were printed during the period 1 July 1872 to 31 December 1873.

The Report also stated:

“The Stamp Printer receives his orders from the Treasury for postage stamps and from the Government Printer for duty stamps. The duty stamp paper is kept in numbered sheets in the Colonial Secretary’s Department and is drawn from thence as required.

Duty stamp paper is obtained by the Government Printer and handed by him to the stamper”.

“Postage stamp paper is drawn by the Stamp Printer himself from the Colonial Secretary to whom he gives a receipt. After the stamps are printed he takes them to the Treasury”

“All the stamping is under the superintendence of Mr. Davis (sic) the foreman”.

Additional responsibilities shouldered by Davies were the numbering and perforating of money orders, cheques and debentures plus the supply of money order books on the order of the General Post Office.

On 11 December 1872 the 1d postage rate on newspapers was reduced to 1/2d. There was a need for a new postage stamp and Davies was entrusted with the task of designing and producing the stamp. The design was based on the contemporary 1/2d  British definitive stamp.

In the 1881 Roll of Persons in Government Employ it is noted that Davies had been given a salary increase to £275. In 1888 the Government Printing Department moved from its wooden building to a three-story brick structure opposite the old building on Lambton Quay. However the stamp printers were accommodated in a separate building to the north of the new building.

These premises providing a much improved commodious accommodation.  On 9 January 1889 Davies presented a paper to the Philatelic Society of New Zealand, in Wellington, entitled The Postage Stamps of New Zealand. It was a description of all the stamps issued by the Government from 1855 to 1889. It was reported in the Philatelic Recorder Vol. IX No. 129 September 1889 p. 171.

Davies knowledge of the printing of stamps from 1864 was first - hand but prior to this was hearsay, although he would have had the chance of conversations with John Richardson. His health was starting to deteriorate and with later research some of his statements in this talk were, deemed questionable by some, but ratified by others.  Make up your own mind – here’s the talk copied from The Philatelic Recorder.

Davies suffered further health problems and by November 1889, E.J.W. Johnson had assumed control of the department as Acting Stamp Printer. A family trip was arranged to Christchurch, where Davies died on Christmas Day 1889 at the age of 54. His body was brought back to Wellington on the Takapuna and he was buried in the family plot in the Bolton St. cemetery.  John Davies was succeeded as Stamp Printer by a Scot, Henry Hume who had been a fellow worker in the Stamp Printing Branch since 1865.

On 31 December 1889, C.A. Hickson, Head Office, Stamp (Duty) Department observed in a memo to his superior, the Secretary of Stamps, John Sperry;

“..Death of Mr. J. Davies late foreman of the stamp printers.... suggests to me that the present would be a favourable opportunity to move the Commission with a view to again placing the stamp printing branch under the control of the Government Printer”.

The Commission acted promptly, and the Government Printer assumed full control over the operation of the Stamp Printing Branch in October 1890.