A DOUBLE-LICKING.
THE NEW WAR CHARGE ON" POSTAGE. "I've almost run out," said the young lady at the Post Office counter. She wai talking of ljd stamps. Aβ she ■poke she passed over sheet after sheet of half-penny a temps—all presumably for the purpose of adding the additional id to all correspondence—the war surcharge. Interest in the war has no doubt obscured interest in stamp collecting—philately is the proper term; at the same time a special war id stamp or war 1} stamp would have brought into the Exchequer a littio more revenue than the id surcharge will, became in the nature of things it -would not have had a very long life, and therefore ite vadue and interest to collectors would have been enhanced. There would have been a large over-the-counter sale, and possibly a small "export trade" done in each stamps. As it Is, every letter will require at least two of its stamp* to be ticked. As there are some 285,000,000 letters, post cards, books, patterns, and parcels postal every year in New Zealand, it is awful to contemplate that 286,000,000 extra stamps will require to bo licked. Will the human tongue stand Uie extra strain? If lid stamps were issued as -war stamps the Government -would be able to tell to i<l what that tax contributed to the revenue. It would be a bandy thing to .knew. On the other nana, there4s Brie to be considered. War stamps "srouid Ijave
to be kqpt in a separate box, and after all perhaps the ordinary green jd stajnp fully innt'ts the case. It is hajidy; and, besides, ,in making a strip of three adhesive one lick might serve: but the maas of the people will first stick on the Id stamp and then the Jd —a doublelicking operation. If it has not id stamp* handy, then Id. and if it omits the jd then the receiver of the letter will have to pay. and it is extraordinary what amount of annoyance so email a matter as payment of excess postage cauecs. The worry is not worth the Id or 2d, or whatever it may fee. It is the principle of the thing that hurts, like a cinder in the eye. Large business places Hlce insurance offices, "banks, and mercantile houses have a heavy daily mail dispatch, but unless they are already provided with some stamp-damping device they will have to employ more boys or girls to cope with the extra stamp-licking. The automatic stomping machine, will not afford Telief unless it be altered to the new denomination, for the additional halfpenny must be paid on all correspondence. The public always licks its etamps, and it posts ite millions of letters a ■week. Unless there is an ample supply of lid stamps available there seems to be no escape for thousands of correspondents from having to lick two etamps for every letter posted. Lettercards having already Id stamp on them will only need one stamp to be licked, but then wha-t about the licking all round tihe perforated edgfc of such cards! The whole question. is as important from the physiological as from the fiscal point of view. Will the additional
stamp-licking that this ne-.v tax involves etimulate hitherto unsuspected latent salivary activities or will it develop new functions! Will it have a desiccating effect upon the tongue, and so intensify thirst as to lead to drinking, alcoholism, and despair? Or will it ao enlarge that member as to cause it to perpetually protrude, at least to seek repoee. in the cheek witu no possible intention of giving offence to anyone* Then there is the additional amount of mucilage which will be assimilated in licking the extra stamps—what of that? But the whole matter affords a subject for interesting medical research, and the Finance Minister should not be surprised if in after years he is confronted with awful results of additional stampliCKing following in the train of this form of war taxation new to New Zealand.—"Wellington Post."
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 232, 29 September 1915, Page 8
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668A DOUBLE-LICKING. Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 232, 29 September 1915, Page 8
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