Health stamp

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.

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.

Authority to issue charity stamps was created by section 34 of the Finance Act 1929, which states

… the Postmaster-General may cause to be created special postage-stamps of the denomination of two pence, which shall be available only for the payment of postage on postal packets, and for that purpose shall be deemed to have a value of one penny only.

The act continues to state that the additional revenue raised shall be used

for such purposes in relation to the prevention or cure of disease or the promotion of public health, as may be approved by the Minister of Health.

The first New Zealand Christmas Seal was approved by the Government in October 1929, and issued on 11 December of that year. A statement by Minister of Health Arthur Stallworthy appeared in newspapers on that day, announcing

To-day we launch our Christmas seal campaign to stamp out tuberculosis

and further identifying the charity:

the first claim upon the funds raised by the inaugural Christmas seal should be the children's health camp movement.

Although the Finance Act 1929 gave the Minister of Health the power to choose the charities supported by the stamps, the idea to support the health camps is credited to the permanent head of the Health Department, Dr. Michael Herbert Watt.

Health camps had been run in New Zealand since 1919, when Dr Elizabeth Gunn ran a three-week camp for children at Turakina near Wanganui. The camps provided holiday relief for children with nutritional and minor physical problems. Children's health camps have continued to be the recipient of money from New Zealand health stamps from this time on; the country’s seven children's health camps (Te Puna Whaiora) are now managed by the New Zealand Foundation for Child and Family Health and Development.

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Wikipedia