The Post Office monopoly was only for letters and
did not include newspapers and parcels.
From 1890 until 1925, Railway Newspaper stamps were available to prepay
the carriage of newspapers by train.
There were six values: ½d, 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d and 6d.
Their use was completely separate from that of the
special
½d newspaper stamp
that was in use from 1873 to 1895.
The stamps were surface printed by the Government Printer.
Different unwatermarked papers were used and the following
perforations are known: 12½, 10, 11 x 10, 11, 14.
Scroll B
From 1924, the shape of the wavy line under NEWSPAPER was
changed in the ½d and 1d values so that the waves are much
flatter (known as scroll B).
scroll A
scroll B
The other values are always scroll A.
Scroll B stamps are always perf 14.
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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.