Contents
The Goldfields of Victoria
by Rod Moreton
The story starts with the discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851. Later that year the State of Victoria was created out of part of New South Wales and rewards offered for the discovery of gold. An development of the gold fields is described leading to the need for post offices some of which were short lived. This is illustrated with covers to and from the diggings as well as maps, engravings and extracts from papers of the period. The story includes murder and arson and gives a glimpse of life from the first fifty years of this Australian gold rush era.

Pre Soviet Russia Registered and associated Mail
by Ian Baillie
There was an insured mail system in Russia in 1691 which continued into the early 20th Century when it withered. The Russian registration system is generally accepted as starting in 1871 and the story of its development to about 1918 is told. This is a survey of the development of the registration systems and their postal rates profusely illustrated with the various types of registration labels including TPO labels, ship mail, Zemstvo, field post and ending with a small section on Finland, Poland and Russian POs abroad.

Early Mails between Constantinople and the West
by Hans Smith
The background leading to the founding of Constantinople by the Roman Emperor in AD 330 is described with a brief survey of its subsequent history with the Byzantine Empire giving way to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The postal history begins with an entire of 1453. The "capitulations" (minor treaties) granted to foreigners began in 1454 with Venice and in later centuries these
formed the basis of the mail services between foreign post offices in the City and the rest of the world. The history over the next 400 years is summarised and interspersed with entires. Some postal rates from 1742 and 1788 are recorded as are some postal markings from 1780. Finally the Napoleonic Posts ending in 1815 are described.

Contents
The Railways of Finland and their Postal Service
by Brian McCloy
The Finnish State Railways were established in 1862. Postal Sorting Wagons were introduced in 1870 on the line from Helsinki to St Petersberg and the station numbers on that line are given for 4 periods between 1870 and 1889. These numbers were incorporated into the railway datestamps. This treatment continues with other railway lines as they were opened. The changes following independence in 1917 are described until the last travelling post office ceased in 1995.

Wartime Cross Channel and North Sea Mails 1793-1815 by Geoff Oxley
Prior to the war between Great Britain and France which began in 1793, there were packet services from Dover to Calais and Ostende and from Harwich to Helvoetsluis. The story of what happened to these services is told until they were restored in an amplified form in 1815. This is illustrated with many entires on which the postal rates and routes are explained. The main ports where mail was received and despatched are listed along with relevant war events and their effect on postal services.

The Impact of the Anglo Boer War on the Orange Free State by Richard Stroud
The first Six Months : October 1899 to March 1900. Eight aspects of postal history are described these are the suspension of mail services to/from Cape Colony and Natal, the censoring of outgoing external mail, the use of a northern route via Delgoa Bay for overseas mail, the Orange Free State Red Cross and Ambulance Corps, the Republican occupation of parts of Cape Colony and Natal, commando activities within the Orange Free State, the British advance leading to the fall of Bloemfontein and the establishment of Kroonstad as a temporary capital, mail to Boer prisoners of war.