1978: Premiers Exhumed
February 7, 2025
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand history, 7 February, 1978, three political ghosts of the past raised their heads from the grave. It had never been done before. The faces of Julius Vogel, George Grey, and Richard Seddon appeared on postage stamps issued by the government’s Post Office.
This issue was a blatantly political act because 1979 was the year of General Election meaning that campaigning and the political year had just begun. Prime Minister Rob Muldoon’s National 3.0 Ministry was in its first term and wished to be re-elected. The faces the Nats wanted out there in public belonged to Rob, Winston Peters, Jim Bolger, John Banks, Ruther Richardson, and so on [image below, right.]
Grey, Vogel, and Seddon had all had their faces circulating in general elections before many times but not for generations! Each of these Victorian-era Prime Ministers were long dead and very few people living would have ever met them let alone voted for them. However, New Zealanders in the 1970s were less ignorant of their history than we in the 2020s thanks to a boom of interest at the start of that decade. Ref. Before the Boomers: High National Self-Esteem, AHNZ
The issue was that each of these men, Julius, George, and Richard, were hard-left politicians. Surely a sign of how the Public Service, or at least the Post Office, viewed their past. If the public service were kinder, or just more fair, to National 3.0 there might’ve been a Massey or a Coates or Holland in there.
Vogel, of course, was a money-printing and deficit-financing lunatic who turned a recession into a Long Depression. He appealed to the Boomer young adults of his day to go along with the madness to the despair of older, wiser, Colonial parents. His State Socialist projects impoverished us all but made it political clients wealthy for a while until it all turned sour.
Grey, after his career as a Governor, pioneered Lefty Liberal politics on a platform of looking out for the worker and bashing the rich. His dark apprentices were John Ballance and Richard Seddon who inherited that torch and ran with it even further. Ref. 1877: George Grey, Premier, AHNZ
Seddon was so successful we still call him ‘King Dick’ for being a powerful left-wing dictator. He (and his wife) created the old age pension, state housing, and delivered on votes for women in the House of Representatives. Businesses and whole industries were nationalised and run by The State under Seddon’s orders. The Labour Party later took on his mantle but were off to a very slow start in this country because Seddon kept their voters in a container under his own thumb (“Lib-Labs.”)
“The stamps have been designed by Allan Mitchell, of Wellington.” – Press, Papers Past
“It is the first time New ! Zealand political figures have been the subject of a I stamp issue.” – Press, Papers Past
Quite outrageous electioneering on the part of the bureaucracy to help elect Bill Rowling’s Labour. It reminds me of the Citizens for Rowling campaign of 1975 in the lead up to that general election. It back-fired when it turned out to be a political set-up rather than an organic, civic, outburst of love for Prime Minister Bill. You would think they would learn their lesson.
The voter did not have a taste for Rowling’s offerings in 1978, re-election Muldoon’s Ministry. Rowling was rolled for David Lange who had more success.
Nor did voters enjoy the taste of these astroturf stamps. “Sir, — The gum on the back of the new 10c stamps, showing Vogel, Grey and Seddon, has an abominable flavour. It reminds one of the rubber cement used in patching bicycle tyres.” said one customer. “Sir, — Ten cent licking, sticking stamps featuring New Zealand statesmen do not tempt the palate of all stamp lick-stickers who prefer to do it yourself. Why oh why was such “inextricable” glue used?” wrote another. Ref. Press, Papers Past
Nice try, Team Rowling. All you succeeded in doing was having Vogel, Grey, and Richard licked at one last election. And, as before, it left a bad taste in New Zealanders’ mouths.
—
Image ref. Stamps NZ
Ref. AHNZ (2017)
Ref. National’s We’re Keeping Our Word campaign 1978, NZ Sound and Vision
Ref other AHNZ posts for 1979
- 1979: Abbotsford
- 1979: Carless Days
- 1979: Country Courthouse Culling
- 1979: Dunedin Airport Siege
- 1979: From Sofinsky to Putin
- 1979: International Year of the Child
- 1979: Kaikoura UFO
- 1979: Misremembering Erebus
- 1979: New Zealand State Kills 257 at Erebus
- 1979: Operation Midford
- 1979: Split Enz: Frenzy
- 1979: Winston Peters Gets In
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