Hi John,
The badge with the NZ above the shield was the first NZ Ordnance badge. It was adopted by the New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps of the NZEF (1914-1921). As the NZAOC(NZEF) was very small and at most only had a strength of approx 60 pers, my guess is that they adopted the British Army Ordnance Department badge and modified it with the NZ above the shield, to make it obvious who the wearers were, no doubt there was some British Ordnance officers upset that mere colonial other ranks were wearing officer pattern badge.
When the home forces in New Zealand finally got around to forming the New Zealand Army Ordnance Department (NZAOD) and the New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps (NZAOC) in 1917, they simply adopted the British Army Ordnance Corps badge, placed NZ in the place of the center cannon and the descriptor for the Department or Corps in the Riband.
Yes for a short period between 1917 and 1921, both badges would have been worn concurrently, one in Europe with the NZEF and the other in New Zealand, but no doubt some individuals would have continued to wear the NZEF badge on RTNZ.
The logic between having a separate Ordnance Department and Ordnance Corps? it was a British class thing as the Department was for officers and the Corps for Soldiers, I believe the Brits combined the two in 1918 and NZ followed suite in 1923. From what I can gather from the NZ archives, when they combined the two in New Zealand, stocks of the NZAOC (NZEF) had been returned from Europe and instead of redesigning a badge closer to the current British pattern, it was decided to utilise the existing stocks. Its quite probable that by 1923 most of the officers serving it the Corps had all served in the NZEF and one of them could have even been the one responsible for designing the original NZEF ordnance badge.
A badge closer the the modern British pattern was adopted in 1937, but the NZEF ordnance badge was resurrected for the New Zealand Ordnance services of 3NZ Division of the 2nd NZEF in the pacific between 1940-44.
Hope this helps.
Rob
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