The Star. MONDAY, JULY 18, 1892. Hidden Dangers.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7337, 18 July 1892, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, JULY 18, 1892. Hidden Dangers.

The case which was tried in the Besident Magistrate's Court, on Friday last, is in some respects very remarkable. A wellkno;vn dealer in old postage stamps was fined for dealing in forged stamps. It was not attempted, by the prosecution, to show that the defendant had forged the stamps, and the Bniall fine that was inflicted shows that the Bench did not suppose him to have been guilty of forgery. Notice of appeal haa been given, and therefore the merits of the case are not open for discußsion. What wo can discusß is the danger that persona unwittingly may run into by giving themselves up to the philatelic mania, as the Bench termed it. Thousands of people take very great interest in the collection of old postage stamps, and the demand for certain old and rare ones is so keen that the prices, it I was stated at the trial, are ridiculously high. For instance, the English catalogue price of a New Zealand penny stamp of a very early issue was given as 30« ; other stamps were said to be priced at £100 or even twice this sum. The intrinsic value of these stamps is practically nothing ; they are even in many cases worthless for postage purposes as they have already been used and duly defaced. That such a keen demand should tempt dishonest people to imitate high-priced stamps for the purpose of defrauding collectors, is undoubtedly not to be wondered at ; especially as collectors, if we are to judge from the evidence of some who were called at Friday's trial, are not very critical in testing the genuineness of the specimens they buy. So loug as the collectors are content to keep spurious stamps they run little risk, but if they sell these forgeries they are almost sure to be brought under the provisions of the Act, which were so ably described by the learned Crown Prosecutor. The section of the Act under which the information was laid contains three sub-sections, and two of these latter affect all who suffer from the collecting craze. Sub-section 1 follows the j words ")A person shall not," and goes on, " make, knowingly utter, deal in, or sell any fictitious stamp, or knowingly U3O for any postal purpose any fictitious stamp," and Sub-section 2 continues, "or have in his possession, unleaa he shows a lawful excuse, any fictitious stamp." From the evidence given at the trial it seems not at all unlikely that in every large collection of stamps there are some which are fictitious, the mere possession of which, unleßß a lawful excuse is given, renders the owner l'able to pro-ecution. The Law Officers of the Crown are not bo anxious to haras 3 people as to prosecute any one for the mere possession of such stamps, but are certainly called upon to prosecute people who " deal ia or sell any fictitious stamps," because it is the duty of the Law Officers to protect as much as possible Her Majesty's lieges from being defrauded in any way, although there may be no intention of fraud on the part of the dealer or seller. The old axiom, "Let the buy er take care of himself," does not apply in this case, because there is a special statute which cares for him. Whilst the buyer, however, is thu3 protected, the seller is left to take care of himself. Tho case tried on Friday showed that stamp collecting hiw ita hidden dangers, and that dealing in stampa 13 extremely risky.