Australia - Brown years: 1923-1939.
1936 Easter Greetings: AB-GE-36.

  
General characteristics:

Heading and notes: Form number T.G.42L. for the delivery form and T.G. 65L for the opaque delivery envelope.
Message area: Blank.
Reverse side: Blank.
Colours (text & form): Multicoloured on cream.
Size of form overall: 152 × 203 mm.
Distinctive characteristics of this form:

As part of the strategy to broaden the market for telegraphic communication, telegrams to convey Easter Greetings were introduced for Easter on 6 April 1936. They were available for only 9 days - hence contributing to their great rarity as a used form with accompanying delivery envelope.

Announcements in many newspapers about the time of issue were as follows:

"EASTER GREETINGS
New Telegram Form.

To meet the demand for a convenient form of greeting at the Easter season, the Post Office has made available a specially designed and attractively coloured Easter greetings telegram form with a matching envelope. The form symbolises the spirit of the Easter season and is available from 6th to 14th April inclusive.

To ensure the delivery of a message on the special form the words "Easter Greeting" should be inserted just prior to the address when lodging a telegram in the ordinary way. Telephone subscribers may call "Telegrams" and dictate the greeting message intimating that the special service is desired. No extra charge is made for the use of the ornamental forms nor is there any charge for the indicator word.

Those who may be away from home during the Easter season are advised to acquaint themselves with the post office holiday arrangements and thus ensure delivery of the greeting messages at the desired time.

The new forms may be inspected at the post office where full particulars of the service are available".

 

The Easter Greetings forms were very popular and were thus made available for similar short periods in subsequent years until the withdrawal of all ornamental greetings forms in 1942 due to war-time restrictions. The PMG reported a steady annual increase in the number of Easter Greetings telegrams sent each year as reported in the table opposite (extracted from Hancock, p. 298).

 

 

 
Year No. of telegrams
1936 9,867
1937 12,573
1938 14,000
1939 15,000
1940 23,000
1941 27,000
AB-GEF-36.

Used delivery form.

Sydney to Blackburn, Vic.
14 April 1938.

AB-GEE-36.

Used opaque delivery envelope.

Although no date stamp, the form and the envelope are clearly a pair in terms of the handwriting.

Details of use and rarity.

Form
sub-number		 Schedule number Earliest recorded date Rarity rating
GEF-34 None. 14 April 1938 at Blackburn, Vic. RRRR as a used and tied pair..
C if unused.
GEE-34 None. 14 April 1938 at Blackburn, Vic.