PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 60

PHILATELY.

Br Peluee.

The first issue of Panama from its first issue as a State of Colombia has been remarkably clean, without a single example ot an unnecessary issue. On. the formation of the Republic in January last, the country was without stamps, and it was essential that a distinctive issue should be used, orders were, at once given to have stamps made in New York, but where good work js gomanded months are required to fill such an order; but not a single day could a post office be allowed io b& without stamps. But one road was open, the stamps on hand had to be surcharged.

In such a country as Panama not a single good printing office exists. Moreover, if there had .been one in the capital and an order had been given to send all stamps in outlying post offices to the capital to be surcharged, all the towns would be deprived of stamps for periods ranging from one week to two months. But one alternative remained. Each postmastei was ordered to surcharge all stamps in his office to the best of his ability and uso until supplied by a, n©w_issue of the Republic. The surcharges are ""before us— a grand botch of bad work, full of errors of every description. That these errors are not fraudulent is proved by the- fact that we have not heard of a single instance where an extra pi-ice- has be>>n charged for an error or a case in which the errors have been erased from the sheets before selling to the public.

Philately passes the spare hour or so of ones' ordinary daily life in a pleasant and profitable manner, and gives a relaxation from the everyday business worries. Surely it is immeasurably better to spend one's quiet hours with such an educating pastime than in absolutely rotting oneself away by loafing on the streets. Every country would be better off in health and wealth if such an amount of brain tissue were not allowed to decay and go to waste through sheer laziness and loafing. The greatest nation of the future will be far more one of brains than muscles. Hence I would strongly recommend £hat every person have an edifying hobby 'of some sort, and philately is jus* one of them.

• In at least one point, Japan is ahead of any other country in the world — the cheapness of her postal service. In spite of the mountainous and irregular nature of tho country, of the fact that there are only about 100 miles of railways in operation, and other similar drawbacks, a letter can be sent from any one point in the empire for any other point for two sen — or considerably le e s than a permy — less than three farthings, in fact.

Tnder the "Value Payable" or "Cash on Delivery" sy-tejn. in Germany, a. parcel, I letter, or other packet may be handed into ! a post office with a written request that a ' certain sum of money be collected from the ' addressee and remitted by the Post Office 'to the sender. On arriving: at its destina- ; tion, the packet is tendered to the addressee, J who must pay the amount named in the ! request before he can receive the packet. | In default of payment (as for instance if tho addressee is out and has left no authority with his servants), the postman leaves a notice to the effect that the packet can be , had on application at the neare-t post office, s If unapplied for within a. certain time, it iis returned to the sender. The system is • subject to various modifications in different countries and the fees charged by the Po-t Offices vary widely.

In Geuniany during 1902 the remarkable number of 21 million letlei.i and 16 milHor 'parcels with Trade charges were dealt with. The total of the Trade cliargc-s amounted to no less than 648^ million marks (about £32.000,000 !)— a striking testimony to the usefulness of the system in that country.

i All Chinese locals (Amoy, Chefoo, Cliin- , kiang, Foochow, Hankoxr, Ichang Kewkiang, I Nanking, Shanghai, and \^*nhu) are now ro | good foj postage anywhere, as the local I offices have all been closed by the Chinese Imperial Post Office. Befor* that, they •were all good~_only locally, and to some extent among each oilier ; cspecialy did all of thorn have arrangements with the L.P.O. i at Shanghai, the mother office, so to «peak. | (Shanghai stamp* wore also the forerunners ! of the -Impei ial Chinese )«suo I) 3' 12 j-ears ; , for tin? reason Shanghais have in catalogues ; always been looked upon as a kind of Govornmental issue.— Kb. H.C] Of course, , the branches maintained by the Hong Kong ' Office of Great Britain, u?ing Hong Kong | stamps, are on a different footing, as they ! belong to the Postal Union, like the U.S. Office at Shanghai, and the -various offices maintained in the Treaty Ports by Germany. i France, Japan, Russia ; even Italy has , opened one lately. The Chinese Imperial Post Office turns letters to foreign countries over to the foreign offices most convenient for forwarding them. Most of the foreign mail goes through the various offices at Shanghai. The Chinese Office pays for .stamps of the respccti\e foreign' offices which carry the letter, so that the- Chinese P.O. does the work on foreign letter; entirely free of chaige. Only with tho ofilc-e at Shanghai it hs>s an arrangement wherehy the French Office forwards mail bearing only Chinese ftamps to its destination •niihout additional charge; the Chinese P.O. pays a lump sum for thi«. It is reported that Germany is about to enter into a similar arrangement.— Fortnightly.

The London Daily Mail published the following in Jpuuary : "For V o fir-t issue of Australian -'amr?, b^arir;; t:-o portrait, cf the King, plates' are being pro-pared in Melbourne. The stamps will be issued by the Federal Government, and the present State issues will be superseded. While the stamps will be printed in Australia, most of the paper is made in England." Tho A.J.P. has made inquiries, and cannot find thai there is »ny ground ulisite't cr for the above stait-

ling announcement. The book-keeping period will not expire for two years more, and it has been stated, offieialy, that Commonwealth stamps cannot be issued in the meantime. The same journal also adds that proofs of a Commonwealth State stamp, bearing a portrait of the King, were submitted by the Brisbane Government Printing Office to the Federal authorities, but it was reject-ed. My own impression is that no one will ever see Commonwealth stamps with the King'a portrait.

Somebody appears to have had the temerity to put a question to Stanley Uihbons's Monthly Journal on the subject of stamp values, for tho editor, in his most sardonic vein, writes in the Correspondonco Column : ''We carnot answer questions as to values of stamps, a subject on which we are profoundly ignorant."