NEW AUSTRALIAN STAMP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 460, 29 December 1930, Page 7

NEW AUSTRALIAN STAMP

KINGSFORD SMITH ISSUE. CRITICISM OF DESIGN. SYDNEY, Dec. 18. The Commonwealth Post Office must find that the issue of special stamps is a profitable business. It has now decided to issue a stamp in three denominations to commemorate the world flights of Australia’s air hero, Squa-dron-Leader Kingsford Smith. The delicate work of engraving the design is now' proceeding and the stamp will bo ready some .iine in February. The Sturt Centenary stamp was tho last special stamp Issued by the department and it had a ready sale. Millions were issued and they sold readily, the demand greatly exceeding the normal demand for stamps. At a time when the postal revenue needs strengthening it is not surprising that the opportunity should be taken of issuing a Kingsford Smith stamp. The main features in the design of the new stamp are the two hemispheres surmounted by a reproduction of the Southern Cross in which Kingsford Smith made his most notable flights, including that across t’ e Tasman to New Zealand and back to Sydney. The spheres are T'nked by two classic pillars of fame, and there is a spray of laurel leaves at the bottom of each sphere. Superimposed on the top of the stamp is the wing badge of the Air Force with the word “Australia” across it. At the foot is the inscription: “Kingsford Smith’s World Flights. ’ ’ The design has not L-en well received in some sections. The Sydney Sun says: “The central design is composed of two terrestrial globes, upon one of which the nose of the monoplane rests, and upon the other, the tail. Down in the extreme right hand corner of the second of these globes is a small dark spot, which careful examination discovers with a thrill of patriotic pride to be Australia. The design is enclosed on each side with two fluted columns of post office Corinthian pattern, the capitals being of that classic non such type dear to the heart of official designers. Above, between these two beautiful pieces of architecture, are a pair of conventional wings, across which tho word ‘Australia’ sprawls in spidery letters. “The globes are supported by sprays of leaves, ostensibly laurel, above a tablet on which the price is very conspicuously printed. A Chinese effect is obtained outside the- columns by means of letters of the word postage printed perpendicularly in the wellknown Oriental manner. It is a superstition in the official mind that stamp designing is an art which comes by nature to postal officials. Were this not so we would sometimes see artistic stamps issued in the British Domin-