Royal Reels: Gambling

Political

MITCHELL FREDERICK HEPBURN, CANADA & JOSEPH ALOYSIUS LYONS, AUSTRALIA

A brown paper sack envelope with a label which had the crest of the Province of Ontario and the address of the Office of the Prime Minister, Parliament Buildings, Toronto Ontario, was sent to Honourable Mitchell F. Hepburn, c/o Right Honourable J.A. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, Canberra, Australia. There was a blue Air Mail sticker and a manuscript ‘VIA CHINA CLIPPER’. The total postage was $2.70, made up of

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LORD HALIFAX: From WWII APPEASER to BRITISH AMBASSADOR in WASHINGTON

The is a fairly ordinary censored Australian cover sent from Melbourne on 4 June 1942 with a 1d green KGVI stamp and a purple boxed 3/ PASSED/ BY/ CENSOR mark, addressed to Lord Halifax, The British Embassy, Washington, U.S.A., with the sender’s manuscript “From/ Aldred F. Barker/ The University, Melbourne” (Figure 1). Lord Halifax started life as Edward Wood, the fourth son of the second Viscount Halifax, when he was

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THE AUSTRALASIAN FEDERAL CONVENTION, 1891 & SIR GEORGE GREY

There is nothing about this cover that would suggest that this it would contain a letter that spoke of a broken finger, beastly conduct in a divorce case, a friend abstaining from alcohol for 2 years, and that women are not be trusted and this is the reason why the sender is suspicious of marriage. Interspersed with this gossip is an interesting political discussion on Sir George Grey, the single

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THE SEVENTH STATE: A NEW STATE in NEW SOUTH WALES

Two covers addressed to Mr R.D. Craig, Secretary, Nth New South Wales Conference, c/o Seventh Day Adventists, Box 129 Post Office, Hamilton, NSW were sent from Murwillumbah on the 6th and 13th July, 1964, both with the green 5d booklet stamp of QE II (Figure 1). The reverse showed a map of New South Wales, with a shaded insert occupying the north-east portion of the State up to the Queensland

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WILLIAM KERR, JOURNALIST, NEWSPAPER EDITOR/OWNER, TOWN CLERK

This stampless cover from London has a ms. ‘2/3′ and ‘pr. Overland Via Marseilles’, a red ‘clover leaf’ PAID/ L.S,/ 8 SP 8/ 1854 handstamp, as well as an illegible red circular handstamp. It is addressed to W. Kerr, Town Clerk, Melbourne, Australia (Figure 1). The reverse has a distinct red unframed SHIP LETTER/ ( )/ NO * 9/ 1854/ G.P.O. VICTORIA (Figure 2). William Kerr (1812-59), journalist, was born

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WILLIAM JOHN MACLEAY, POLITICIAN/ZOOLOGIST & the MACLEAY FAMILY

The cover is addressed to W.J. MacLeay (sic)  Esq MLA, Australian Club and the 1d red-orange New South Wales ‘Laureate’ stamp was cancelled with a barred grid obliterator with 10 vertical lines characteristic of the Sydney G.P.O. ( Figure 1). The reverse postmark confirms that Sydney was the point of origin with a small unframed SYDNEY/ MY 6/ 185 ( )/ C/ N.S.W.  The vendor states that the year date

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WILLIAM CLARK HAINES, GRAZIER & POLITICIAN, PREMIER of VICTORIA

The entire has a 1d brown and a 3d steel-blue ‘Half Length’ stamps of Victoria cancelled by the barred numeral ‘75′ of Shelford prepaying the 4d inland letter rate to Melbourne and showing but not seen on the reverse, despatch and arrival datestamps of 10 April 1856. It is addressed to William C. Haines, Chief Secretary Office, Melbourne (Figure 1). William Haines (1810-1866), was born at Hampstead, England, son of

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WILLIAM ANDRADE, ANARCHIST, BOOKSELLER , & ANTI-CONSCRIPTIONIST

The incompletely seen cartoon advertising cover shows a caricature of an eastern gentleman apparently standing on a log fishing; the text reads ‘No Ketchem Ten Days return to The House of Mystery and Magic, Will Andrade, 173 Pitt St., Sydney’. It is addressed to Messrs S.S. Adams & Co., Ashbury Park, New Jersey, U.S.A. It has a blue AIR MAIL sticker and the one shilling six pence Airmail and the

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WESTERN AUSTRALIA ATTEMPTS SECESSION IN THE 1930’s

I have no recollections of the persistent concerns that the W.A. residents had about staying in the Australian Federation, right up to the end of WW II in 1945. Moreover, even in the 1970’s a Westralian Secessionist Movement was formed with the financial backing of mining magnate, Lang Hancock. The movement represented a conservative reaction to the centralist views of the Whitlam Labour Government. During the 1999 Federal referendum campaign,

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WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SENATOR ALEXANDER MATHESON (1861-1929)

These two covers were mailed from Perth W.A. eight days apart, almost certainly from the same sender, addressed simply to Senator Matheson. Both were underpaid with the grey ½d swan stamp, and they were postmarked with different Perth G.P.O duplexes. The first had a complete duplex with L.C. (Letter Carrier) ROOM/ 2/ AU 4/ 02/ PERTH and was addressed to St. Georges Terrace, Perth W.A. and it had a tax

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