SPECIAL STAMPS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19814, 30 December 1929, Page 8

SPECIAL STAMPS.

♦ DOMINION'S ISSUES. "CHRISTMAS SEAL" REVENUE. [THE PRESS Speci*! Service] WELLINGTON. December 29. The Dominion's "Christmas Seal" postage stamp, the wide side of which ia going to help materially in the battle against the tuberculosis scourge, marks rather a new departure in the stamp-issuing activities of the Post and Telegraph Department. Special f,tamps lor (special occasions have been issued previously, but never lifloi'f. except in the case of the "War Stamp." has one been issued which fulfils a dual purpose like the present one, that of pre-paying postage and of providing revenue for a special fund. The first special stamp issued in New Zealand wag in 1901. when the colony's participation in the Iloer War was commemorated by a Hd stamp of special design. Five years later the Christchurch Exhibition resulted in a set of four somewhat large oblong stamps recording distinctive New Zealand subjects. The ''Victory" set of 1920 was another special issue, but the stamps were found to be a little large for convenient use, and wore not in common use for long. These were followed in 1928 by what was practically another special stamp, the "map" vt-uiin, issued to commemorate the readoption of penny postage. It was a failure as regards looks and soon disappeared. Dunedin had a special set of stamps for the exhibition held there recently, and that, with the overprinted "War Stamp," which helped to provide revenue in those times of stress, about completes the list of New Zealand's special postal issues.

What the possible revenue to ho derived from :t special issue is may be roughly sauced from the following figures. In tlie year 1900 the number of letters posted in New Zealand was 3(i.000.000. or 47 per head of the population. In 1901. following the introduction of pennv postage, the figures jumped to 48.000.000 and 62 respectively, while bv 1.024 thev had increased to 115.000,000 and 105 respectively. But the increase to 2d in August, 1920, of the rate of postage on letters caused the number of letters nosted per head to drop in 1921 to 99.5. In February. 1923, the letter rate of postage was reduced to ljd, and in October of the same year it was restored to Id. The reversion to penny postage caused the number of letters posted per bead of the population to increase in 1925 to 110, the figure at present being round about 100 per head of the population. If everyone, instead of buving an ordinary penny stamp, bought a Christmas seal stamp, reckoning the population as a million and a half, the revenue for the tuberculosis campaign in ouo rear would be 150 000,000 pence, which equals £625,000, trulv a good.ly sum. But the hope of realising this full sum is, of course, unwarrantable optimism; at the same time there is no reason why a fair proportion should not he realised, and it will be if everyone does his or her bit.