The Stamp Club

Southland Times, Issue 20771, 11 May 1929, Page 23

The Stamp Club

Dear Chums, I am looking forward to seeing a lot, if not all, of you at our first club night for the season which w to be held next Saturday night, May 18, in the Methodist Sunday School, Jed Street, between 7 o’clock and abopt 8.30. Those of you who have started collecting must bring along their albums as well as plenty of duplicates or “swape” to exchange with other members, and those who haven't yet started need bring only an inquiring mind. I would like to see just as many of the one kind as of the other. And don’t forget, anyone who is interested can come along whether he (or she) has written to me or not, because if he hasn’t written, I can still enrol him as a member there and then. And there’s no age limit either. If necessary, later we can break the club into two sections, but in the meantime the only qualification necessary for membership Is interest in stamps. And of course there is no membership fee, or anything like that. I say “au revoir” then, till next Saturday night. Your Cousin Phil. SCRIPTURAL DESIGNS RELIGIOUS THEMES ON STAMPS. The miniature picture gallery of postage stamps presents a wide range of subjects associated with the religions of the world. A remarkable monograph has been written by two French authors on the Christian Inspiration in stamp designs (“L’ Inspiration Chretienne et la Philatelic,” by V. Gisquiere and C. Strowski. Amiens, 6 francs) which shows something of the extent to which Christain emblems and Scriptural themes have been utilized by stamp designers. Crosses in many of their varied forms figure on stamps. One which figures as a quatrefoil in the watermark of some British stamp paper gave offence to Moslems when used for the pretty camel stamps of Sudan in 1898, but aroused no protest from the Malays of Johore, where it was in use from 1896 to 1912. The star of Bethlehem made an unexpected entry as an overprint on Turkish stamps issued during the war, a six-pointed star being used in mistake for the fivepointed star that accompanies the crescent emblem of the Turks. It was replaced by a five-pointed star in 1916. The infant Jesus is represented in the vision of St Anthony on stamps of Portugal and with the Virgin Mary on. stamps of Hungary, Bavaria, Liechtenstein, and the Saar. Among many religious subjects used on Italian stamps that on the issue of 1923 to celebrate the tercentenary of the congregation "De Propaganda Fide” is the most striking showing Christ after the Resurrection enjoining His disciples: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” ,

Holy year and the St Francis d’Assisi celebrations have afforded Italy recent opportunities of issuing stamps of religious interest, and the present year will add a set to commemorate the fourteenth centenary of Monte Cassino, in connection with which celebrations began last week and will continue for some months. A portrait of the Pope has been presented on the "catacombs” series of Spanish stamps this year. There is a long list of saints pictured on stamps, but the St. Anthony series of Portugal is the most curious for the varied incidents in his life depicted, and for the curious invocation, commencing "0 blessed tongue,” which is printed on the gummed side of the stamps. The shipwreck of St Paul is the theme on some of the IQs stamps of Malta, and a religious service, the celebration of Mass on the Mount of Crosses, is depicted on the 1 peso stamp of Mexico’s 1910 issue. To these varied subjects may be added many scenes from Bible lands on the British issues for Palestine and the French issues for Syria and Grand Lebanon.' EASTER ISLAND A STAMP MYSTERY. Easter Island that remote outpost of the South-East Pacific, has its mystery for the stamp collector, small in comparison with the mystery of its mighty monuments and images. A member of the expedition in the non-magnetic yacht Carnegie in 1916, Captain Bradley Jones appears to have obtained there stamps of the 1915 Chilean issue, overprinted “Rapa-Nui” (Great Rapa) the native name of the island. He and other members of the expedition posted letters with these stamps to await the arrival of the trading schooner from Chile, but these letters were never delivered. Four or five unused copies of the stampo retained byCaptain Jones have been the subject of a good deal of inquiry in the United States, but no reliable information has been forth coming.

At the time of the visit of the Carnegie the population was roughly 250, all Kanakas save two, the Governor (a Chilean) and a Portuguese, the sole survivor of a shipwreck who had gone native. So the need for postage stamps on Easter Island could not have been a pressing one.