PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2744, 17 October 1906, Page 65

PHILATELY.

Bt Pkhjek.

At the great philatelic exhibition recently * held in London, our recent visitor/ Mr L. 3j. R. Hausburg, tcok a gold rrjcdal for New Zealand. Like all Mr Hausburg's exhibits, this was not only a superb show, l>ut was splendidly arranged and lucidly described, by copious notes, in which much information was given for the first time. For instance, the retouches of the 2d were shown and explained for the first time, and the 'first perforated stamps were divided into two set? — those done et Dunedin ganging pL3, which were the earlier, and those done at Auckland, which gauge 12^-12%. The former was a. eing-le-lino machine, ma-king' smaller holes and more cleanly cut than those of the latter, which was a comb machine. The collection is complete, containing such things as the first Id unused, the 2d and Is bleute unused, the ;2d no wink., perf. 13 two unused, 4d "star, perforated, deep orange trau-sed, and a hitherto unchrcnicled variety —the 2d blue perf. 10 x 12£.

A contributor to the Pall Mall Gazette having stated that the German Emperor's portrait has never appeared; on a postage stamp, the following amusing retort has fceen made over the signature "8.P." : — "i am grieved that I must correct tho excellent article on 'Postage Stamps' in to-night's issue of your journal. It is stated therein that the German Emperor has never been represented upon a postage •tamp, while no Sovereign ha« ever been ■o elaborately portrayed as the KaiscK. is upon the three-mark and fire-mark values of the issue of 19C0 for his country. Even upon his postage stamps "he makes the inevitable speech, for he is represented jpoxi the five-mark value as faying : ' One empire, one people, one God.' The latter part of the remark alone explains why Bavaria still prints its own stamps, though the who'o sentence must be most unpalatable to a Bavarian."

Among other -Sovereigns the Khedive of Egypt was at one time a philatelist, und ft' story was told of how he came to part with his collection, gome years ago he paid a visit to. the* Sultan Of Turkey at Constantinople, and Sir Nicholas O'Conor, the British Ambassador, gave a luncheon in his honour. _T,-hc Khedive was seated next to Mrs Barclay, wife of the second Secretary of the Embassy. In the course of conversation it transpired that Mrs Barclay was an ardent stamp collector, and *he Khedive asked her if she would accept at few stamps from his collection. A few days afterwards the Khedive sent an aide-de-camp to the lady with his entire collection.

Ascension. — An inquiry a<3 to the postage stamps used on this small island synchronises with-the receipt of Mckeel's Weekly for 26th May, in which Mr Severn answers -a" similar question by surmising that the stamps of St. Helena are in use there. Seeing that it has a copulation of near 500, which is About as many as in some other stamp-issuing districts, it may seem strange that it has not been favoured with an issue all to itself, if only of three values. Unless there has been a recent change, we believe that -on]y the stamps of Great Britain are used, the writor having received letters some years ago from naval men out there prepaid with the ordinary penny to sixpenny stamps. The is'and is virtually only a coaling station belonging to the Admiralty Board, to which naval convalescents are often tent for change of air from \he ships on the West African coast.

Hia Majesty tho King of Italy has graoiously presented a Grand Gold Medal, ■which will form the Grand Prize of the Milan Philatelic Exhibition. Tho Italian Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs has also jjreaented- -a gold medal, and tho jury will nave at their disposal at least 50 medals, .10 of which will be gold.

Some time ago there was a query in the Department of Inquiry asking for information regarding the various steamship navigation stamps. Wo now find *in Senfs JQI. Brefmarkcn Journal the follow in ggafcout the. Sues Canal stamps: — "The Suez X^anal, •which was to cut through the Isthmus of Suez, a distance of 112 km, and to unite the Mediterranean and the Red Ssa. was begun on April 25, 1589. It was Ferdinand do Lesseppa who. with his ' Compagnie unversel'o dv canal maritime de Suez,' undertcok and finished tho gigantic task? Tlie wo"rk . was done by 25,000 fellohs, Egyptian labourers, among whom a fearful •mortality broke out, so that the company (had to get labourers from France. French colonists soon followed, who sought their new homos in the vallov of the Nile and in the neighbourhood of the canal. Naturally ■the company had instituted a telegraph and postal service for its own and its many officers' and labourers' use. The latter worked gratis. Monsieur Gustav Richc traa both post and te'egraph director. He conceived the plan, about 1867, to make the post remunerative for the company by collecting postage as was done in all countries with a postal institution. The company readily accepted the idea. A pretty set of stamps, cancelling hand stamps and the liko was ordered from Paris, am? in July, 1868, the first stamps were issued— in, French, not in Egyptian money. This was less acceptable to the labourers and officers, who henceforth had to pay postage on their letters, than for the company, which collected the postage. Unfortunately for tho company tfiis state of affairs did not last long. Soon the Egyptian Government got wind of the matter and pcremp» fcoriiy demanded the abolition of the new stamp 3. After some delay and a little span-ing the company after about two months withdrew its stamps, and those of Egypt took their place."'

Tho Rev. T. P. Davi* informs the A..T.P. that South Australian -'tamps wuh the punctured letters "S.A. are still being ased by the State departments. Perhaps Ibey aria netting rid of old slock. The

five years' bookkeeping period will " expire in October of this year. At the Premiers* Conference, held in Sydney last month, futile attempts were made to solve the problem of State interests versus Federal rights, which materially affects the issue of a real Commonwealth series of postage stamps, and there are indications^bat the Commonwealth may have to put^ip with a hybrid set for many years to come. Circumstances point to the likelihood that they will have, in the near future, a socalled Commonwealth scries printed in Adelaide on the South Australian pattern — viz., oao die, with spaces for the insertion of the name of each Stats and value* as occasion requires. Everything is being sacrificed to economy, but they are so weary of the whole business that they will welcome anything that will put an end to the present incongruous condition of affair*.

In l£6l, owing to a temporary shortage of Id and 4d stamps in Cape Colony, local printers were employed to provide a supply, and they did so by producing tho best imitation they could of the original stamp?. These local reproductions, known as wood-blocks, arc among the rarities of the colony.

A London contemporary estimates the capital invested in the stamp trade at £6,000.000.. Tihis will not include the capital invested by collectors a-nd numerous small dealers. If this bo included, we should have to double or treble these figures. There, are very few people who have any adequate- conception of the enormous extent to- which the traffic stamps, po*tal and fiscal, has grown. The collecting 1 and 1 dealing in stamps, "whether pursued as a pastime or as a business, has assumed the proportions of «an industry. This was for years realised by certain postmasters and smaller Governments, who speculated upon stamp dealers and Rtnmp collectors by producing stamps which were not needed for postal purposes, but produced a handsome income through their sale to collectors.

•M. Rer.e Adam, who makes a special study of stamp statistics, has contributed his usual compilation of tho figures fcr ISOS to the Revue Philalelique. There were, it seems, 697 new stamps issued during the year, made up as follows : — Europe, 151; Africa, 187; Asia, 93; Oceania, 68; America, 198;— total, 697. Of this number the British Empire pleads guilty to 140 varieties.