NEW ISSUES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 66

NEW ISSUES.

Nepal (India). — A" new issue of postage ftamps for "Nepal is in preparation. The design will be somewhat unique even in the present age of /postal curiosities, tho wording being entirely in Native characters, so that the collector, unless he is acquainted with Devanagri, can only distinguish the different values hy their

colours, and moreover the equivalents of the words "postage" or "revenue" are absent. The stamp contains a double border, the inner one in black letter being a ■motto, which is the" same on all the stamps, while the outer border in white letter contains at the top the name of the god whose image is portrayed iv the centre; at the bottom "Goorka Sirkar", and the denomination on either side in Devanagri. In the centre of the stamp, amidst the eternal snows from whence flow the fertilising streams to the green hills below, site the god Siva Mahadeo, or Mahadiva as «ome spell it, the destroyer, "the supreme god," with hie three eyes to denote the three divisions of time: past, present, and future. In one hand he holds an antelope; in another the trident to show the three great attributes of oreating, preserving, and destroying, and that he is the Iswara or supreme lord. Another hand is held ur» in a forbidding attitude, and the fourth is stretched out in the act of solicitation. The necklace of ekulU signifies the lapse and revolution of ages and the extinction and succession of the generation of mankind. In the upper corners the sun and crescent moon are represented, the lower corners giving the year of issue of the stamps. Fjour denominations are to be printed first — viz., 2 pice brown, 4 pice green, 8* pice carmine, and 16 pice purple (1 pice equals id English).

Congo Free State. — Rumour has it that a new set of stamps will be issued for the Congo Free State as soon as the arbitra-' tion now proceeding decides whether it is to remain under the protection of Belgium or be placed under that of France.