NEW POSTAGE STAMPS.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18406, 13 August 1931, Page 9

NEW POSTAGE STAMPS.

♦ ‘ AIR MAIL SERIES SOON. ! SETS FOR THE ISLANDS. New aerial post sfa'mps for Nev.Zealand and a complele change of the series now being used in the Island | dependencies are now being prepared. There is also a possibility that the Is 3d stamps recently issued may be witlidraWn. It is proposed to issue a set of three aerial post stamps, of the denomlnallon of 3d. id and 7d, tlie fees charged for correspondence posted for carriage by the overseas air services. The proposed stamps will have an appropriate design, the work of Mr Martin, a Wellington artist, but the plates will be made in England. A special stamp for the payment nt air mail fees in New Zealand was prepared previously, but has never been placed on issue, and will now he superseded by the set of three. . It is also intended to withdraw the pictorial sets now being used In Rarotonga. Niue. Altutaki, Penrhyn, and substitute one set comprising seven values for the Cook Islands, and another similar series for Niue. The ' new stamps will lie Issued in jd, id, 2d. 2ld. id. 6d and Is values. Hie difference between the two sets being In Hie borders of Hie central design. For stamps of higher denomination the present practice of overprinting tin; New Zealand stamps will continue. Pictorial Designs. 1 lie designs which have been chosen will be a* follows.—jd, land-

Ing of Captain Cook, with his vessel Its the background and a group of natives under coconut tree# ashore; Id, Captain Cook in naval headdress; 2d. a double Maori canoe; 2Jd, natives working cargo between th<* shore and a schooner at anchor, with a cargo shed and coconut palms in the foreground; 4d, the port of Avarua; 61, R.M.S. Monowai, which connects i Rarotonga with the rest of the world, seen by moonlight; Is, His Majesty! In mufti. As with the air stamps, the plates will be manufactured in England ami the startips printed at the Government Printing Office. No announcement has yet been made as Io whether it is intended that a new set of st ami s should be issued for Samoa. All these changes arc Independent of the competition for a new series nf pictorial stamps for New Zealand which is at present being conducted. Recent Issue Criticised. The Is 3d stamps which were placed on sale a few months ago have been roundly condemned by philatelists. Of an armorial design, which the “New Zealand Stanq Collector ’ alleges is inaccurate, the stamp la printed In a dull yellow, which Ih-j philatelic Journal, having remarked upon the difficulty of adequately describing it, calls “unripe lemon.” The secretary of the Christchurch Philatelic Society (Mr \V. Peers lias written Io the Prime Minister stating that his society (irc’ares that it is “ths world's worst example of a stamp sold for postal purposes.” and asking that It be withdrawn. Replying on behalf nf the Prime Minister, the Hon. W, A. Veitch wrote stating that lie woulej be glad to go into the matter with the Postmaiter-General.