PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2860, 6 January 1909, Page 70

PHILATELY.

Si FsLur.=.

Death has been busy in the ranks of philatelists lately, and now I have to announce another great loss in the person of M. Paul Mirabaud. one of the foremost philatelists and stamp collectors in France, which took place in Paris on May 12. He was only 60 years old. M. Mirabaud had been suffering froru heart di=ease for some years, and since the beginning of this year has not Jeft his house or been abl© to see even his intimate friends ; he himself anticipated his early death, as only last year he stated his race was nearly over, and that h© could not expect to live long. M. Mirabaud had been a stamp collector for nearly 30 years, and for more than half that time was also one of the finest philatelists in France. His standard work upon " The Postage Stamps of Switzerland " (in collaboration with his friend Baron' A. de Reuterskiold), published in 1899 in French, English, and German, ranks as one of the best, a 6 it is the most Sumptuous handbook ever issued. Some year prior ro this M. Mirabaud published a grand work upon the history of the Mirabaud family ; this was only issued privately, and is now very scarce. M. Mirabaud was th© head of the great banking firm that bears his name: be was a Regent of the Bank of France, administrator of the Suez Canal Company, and of the Orleans railway, and was president or vice-president of a number of large commercial undertakings, and was very largely interested in the railways of France, in copper mines in Spain, etc. His stamp collection ranked as the third >most valuable in France, and I should include it in the best 10 collections of the world. His collection of Swiss stamps is one of the finest specialised collections in existence, ranking with the well-known United States of Lord Crawford.

A Contented Collector. — Among our readers is one who does not care for Poet Office Mauritius stamps, and it will be useless for dealers to flood him with these stamps on approval even at the most attractive discounts/ He says : "I am collecting stamps only for their beauty, and favour specimens such as Borneo, Liberia, and the new issue of Canada. The Mauritius Post Office would not appeal to . me, as they -are totally lacking in beauty." We are glad to enoourage diversity of collecting opinion, and so we commend the stand of our philosophic correspondent even at the risk of weakening_ greatly the market for the Mauritius rarities.

It will soon become a recognised philatelic fact that no revolution, peaceful or warlike, will be allowed to take place without being followed by either a commemorative issue of stamps or some special overprint on the current series. It was the intention of the Turkish Government, says the Illustriertes Briefmarken Journal, to issue a special set of postage stamps bearing the memorable date, July 24, 190?. This issue has, however, been postponed, whether because Young Turkey feels its position somewhat insecure we know not, but an alternative project was the overprinting of the current stamps with the above-mentioned date. This likewise has not yet materalised, and now that the authorities are confronted with th© defiance of Bulgaria, we may be spared even this infliction. Nothing more has transpired lately of the intention of the young Turks to suppress the " foreign offices." Doubtless the Turkish Government will have too much to do for some time in eetting its own house in order to trouble about this clearance, and, in any case, the Powers concerned will not take the initiative.

Thurn and Taxis was not a political division of Germany, but is a designation applied to the stamps issued in connection with the monopoly of postage affairs held by the princely house of this name. This monopoly dated back to the fifteenth century, when th© Emperor Frederick 111 granted to the Taxis family the working' of the posts in his dominions. In 1520 the Emperor Charles created Beptiste de Taxis " Postmaster-general of the German or Holy Roman Empire,' and this office was made hereditary. The Thum and Taxis Post Office had its headquarters in Frankfort, and the extent of its monopoly about the year 1850 has already been detailed. From the latter it will be seen that its operation included States some of which used the North German currency of silbergrosehen and others the South German one of kreuzer, thus necessitati%g two series of stamps.

Bavaria intends changing its faithful old stamp design — a design whioh has answered all the requirements of post and public for over 40 years. The " arms " device, embossed in white on a background of colour, was first used in 1867, and with very slight modifications has remained in active service ever since. Yet the Bavarian stamps are not eueh a very simple series as one might suppose, for what they have lacked in variety of design they have amply made up in changes of watermark. Indeed, the watermarks aif ths chief thing to study in connection with the stamps of Bavaria. Now, according to German newspapers, designs are being invited for an entirely new series of stamps.

The annual report of the Postmaster-g-eneral of Great Britain always contains a great deal of interesting and instructive information, readable alike by the philatelist and the non-collector. T,ho report before us is the fifty-fourth, and from it we learn that the stupendous number of 4.972.070,000 posial packets w-ere delivered in the United Kingdom for the year ending March 31 last. This huge total i-s made up of 2,863.900,000 Jelteis, 858,200,000 post cards, 940.600,000 halfpenny packets, 199,800,000 newspapers, and 109,470,000 parcels. We think it might safely be said that stamp collectors contribute more largely to this total than dc the devotees of any other

form of collecting, while certainly few, if any other members of the great British letter-writing public, look forward more eagerly to the advent of the postman than do philatelists, unle3s indeed it be the poor unfortunate stamp dealer, who has a selection out on approval and is in arrears with his office boy's salary !