NEW HEALTH STAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 4

NEW HEALTH STAMPS

NOVEL DESIGN AND SHAPE

A distinct note of novelty will be struck by this year's two new Health stamps, which will be issued on October 1. They will be triangular in shape and will show portraits of the two Royal Princesses, that of Princess Elizabeth on the higher of the two values and that of Princess Margaret on the other. One, brown in colour, will cost threepence, twopence for postage and one penny for health; the lower value, green, will cost threehalfpence, one penny postage and one halfpenny for health. In the lower corners of each stamp are sprays of the English oak with acorns and of manuka. As the Maori used an infusion of the leaves of the latter for the treatment of pulmonary ailments, the inclusion of a spray on the health stamps is not inappropriate. Regulations at present in force for-

bid the enclosure of stamps in letters going overseas, but in the case of the new Health stamps these regulations are to be relaxed to a limited degree. Private individuals may enclose in any one letter up to four unused specimens of each denomination, and this will be allowed until the stamps are withdrawn from sale, which will be not later than the end of February next. This concession, it is anticipated, will be very popular and greatly increase the number of sales, which last year totalled 720,042 for the lower denomination and 942,425 of the higher and meant over £4000 for health purposes. Another factor which will increase sales overseas, where New Zealand stamps are in big demand among collectors, is the fact that the British Board of Trade has agreed, in respect of these Health stamps, to relax the prohibition against the bulk, importation of stamps into Great Britain, solely on the ground of the good cause for which they are issued. This will enable dealers in Great Britain to meet the demand.