STRIKING DESIGN

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 5 January 1935, Page 6

STRIKING DESIGN

THE NEW AIR. STAMPS. FOR DOMINION USE. Within the next two or three weeks New Zealand will he using a new set of air-mail stamps. The design on them is the work of Mr G. Berry, and shows the airport at New Plymouth. Mount Egmont stands as a guiding landmark at the back, and in one corner under a tree fern stands a Maori watching the arrival of an aeroplane, a second aeroplane being on the ground near the hangar .AVhen examined under a magnifying glass the details of the design stand out very clearly. The stamp is certainly an attractive one, and a great improvement on the present series.

There will he three values in the new set, the design for each being the same. The penny will be printed in red, the threepence value probably in claret, and the sixpenny value probably in purple, but the colour of the latter depends upon the suitability of the inks available in the . stamp printing department of the Government Printing Office. The plates and dies for these new air-mail stamps have been made by the stamp-printing branch of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the line engraving process being the one used. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been also responsible for the production of the Melbourne Centenary and other recent new Australian stamps, and in all these cases lias turned out very good work. The actual printing of the stamps is being done in Wellington.