STORIES IN STAMPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORIES IN STAMPS.

There is a great deal of interest, in the stories that lie. behind the stamps which were added to the collector's album at the end of last year. History books have little to tell concerning Duke Tomislav, of Croatia, wholived and reigned 1004 years ago, and called himself first King of the Croats. His likeness appears, however, in company with that of the present King Alexander of Yugoslavia upon an issue of postage stamps made in tliat country in his honour. Another of these ftamps shows King Tomislav in his coronation , robes, and a third shows the memorial church at his former capital, Duvanjska. These three" commemoration stamps are to remain on sale for six/ months, to raise funds for a national memorial. Famous beauty spots in Austria and Tyrol provide some coloured designs for ' the latest issue of Austrian _ postage stamps. Each stamp has the picture of a well-known landmark, and one is the view of the historic Castle of Gussing, said to be of Roman origin. Another shows" the Carinthian stronghold of Hochostenvitz, home of the Kehenhuller family, with its 1 steep approach cut in the mountain side. Durnstein, in Lower Austria, which is also pictured on a stamp, isfamous in history as the scene of the imprisonment of Richard Couer de Lion' by Count Leopold of Austria in 1192-93. , A curious religious custom takes place in Japan every 21 years, when the shrine of the Shinto goddess Ise is transferred to a new site with ceremonies lasting for three days. In connection with the fifty-eighth removal of , the temple special postage stamps were issued at Tokyo,, with a view of the Ise Shrine seen through tall pine trees. Some of the earliest aeroplane flightsare recalled by the subjects of a new [set- of air mail stamps being issued by the Brazilian post office, we learn from the "Times." M". Santos Dumont making his famous flight round the Eiffel Tower in his airship N6 on October 19, 1901, is' given a stamp to himself. The ill-fated aerostat Pax, which exploded whilst on a trial trip at Far/is on May 12, 1902, and caused the death of its pilot, M. Auguste Severo,, appeal's on a stamp printed in blue. In about two months the Australian postal authorities are issuing two stamps to commemorate the centenary jof that great explorer, Charles Sturt. One stamp is for lid, and the other for 3d. The centre of the. stamp has a fullface portrait of Sturt, and the border is decorated in typical native Australian designs.