EMPIRE COMMERCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20465, 9 July 1936, Page 4

EMPIRE COMMERCE

COMING CONFERENCE IN NEW ZEALAND COMMEMORATIVE STAMPS By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, July 8 “The Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire will hold its annual conference in New Zealand next October, and the Post Office, which is so closely linked with the business community in all its activities, will specially mark this important occasion by an issue of suitably designed stamps,” stated the Postmaster-General, the Hon. F. Jones, in an interview to-day. This Empire organisation of business meh, which has its headquarters in London, has followed the practice of holding the annual Conference in an overseas portion of the Empire once every three years, and the 1909 Conference took place in Australia. The coming Conference, the first occasion on which New Zealand has been so honoured; will open in Wellington on Friday, October 2nd, and will b? continued through the following week. The president, Viscount Elibank, will preside, and Sir Thomas Wilford, who is Chairman of the Executive, will also be present. Questions of great importance to business interests throughout the Empire will come up for discussion, and the Conference will attract to the Dominion a very influential gathering of those prominent in the Empire’s commerce. The designs for the commemorative stamps, five in number, have been approved, and the plates for their production are being prepared by the Australian Commonwealth Stamp Printing Branch. The half-penny denomination in green will have for its subject the production of wool, and will represent sheep-shearing and the transport of the bales from the country by motor-lorry. New Zealand’s great dairying industry will figure in the penny (red) stamp, the main feature of which will be the interior of a butter factory with one of the most modern churns at work and export packing operations going on in the foreground. For the twopence halfpenny denomination, to be printed in blue, in accordance with International Postal Regulations, the Dominion’s sheep flocks are to be represented in a. picturesque setting, while the fourpenny denomination, to be reproduced in mauve, will deal with the rapidly developing industry of fruit growing. The Dominion’s imports will be the subject of the sixpenny stamp which reproduces a wharf scene, where a liner is discharging some of the Dominion’s purchases from overseas. The main characteristic of our imports is suggested in a side-panel depicting the argosy of commerce under full sail, and appropriately entitled “British Industries.” The stamps will be of the same shape and size as the recent Jubilee issue. They will be on sale on the Ist October jiext, and will be withdrawn not later than thet 31st October.