These stamps were for the payment of duties, fees and fines in Law Courts or to Registrars of Deeds or District Land Registrars.
Both sets of stamps were authorised by an Act passed in December 1875. Before that, the fiscal stamps first issued in 1867 dealt with everything. The law changed again in 1881 and the use of these special stamps ceased.
The stamps were designed by W.R.Bock and A.E.Cousins and surface printed by the Government Printer in Wellington on paper watermarked NZ and star. Both issues were perforated 12½, nearly 12, and 12 x 11½.
Law Courts
The stamps came into use in January 1876. Initially, they were only used by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal while from 1878 they were also used by Magistrates courts.
The plate had 240 impressions in 4 panes of 60.
The issued values were: 1/-, 2/-, 3/-, 5/-, 6/-, 10/-, £1, £3, £5 and £10. There was only one plate with the values being added after the background had been printed.
Land and Deeds
The stamps came into use in July 1877. The following values were produced: 1/-, 2/-, 3/-, 4/-, 5/-, 6/-, 8/-, 10/-, 15/-, 20/-, £3, £5, £10.
The 1/- value was initially issued in a slightly
larger size (21 x 25mm)than the others (which were 18 x 22mm) and perf 12½.
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The above information is taken from The Postage Stamps of New Zealand Vol 6, published by the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand in 1977. All scans were made by the author.