[Editor: This untitled news item, regarding the new Tasmanian postage stamps, was published in The Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas.), 2 January 1900.]
[The new stamps]
The new stamps are being very severely criticised. Some people object to them on account of their size, and others take exception to their design. As to the dimensions of the new postal frank, something is no doubt to be said both for and against them. The question of size is largely dependant upon the design — upon what it is desired to have represented on the face. If we were content with a portrait of her Majesty the Queen, the old orthodox stamp of seven-eighths by six-eighths of an inch would be quite big enough. But something bigger is, of course, necessary to display a picture of Hobart in one case and of Mount Wellington in the other.
If we disapprove of the deposition of the Queen, and the usurpation of her throne on our postage stamps by Hobart and Mount Wellington, we need not trouble about the size, which will be settled for us, and doubtless by a return to the old, more convenient, and more appreciated stamp, if popular opinion on the matter is strong enough to move the postal department — a question as to which there seems to be a good deal of doubt prevalent in the community. The general impression is that this department of the public service, which might be supposed to be one of the most enterprising, is one of the least movable.
Some critics of the new stamps point out that as an advertising medium for any particular part of the colony they are not worth much, because the post office obliterator effectually blots out any attempts at pictorial art on them. Others contend that a representation of the Sovereign of the Empire ought to be the design for postage stamps throughout British dominions. This reads like a broad-based, well-founded, and reasonable proposition. Different colors and figures would be quite enough distinction between the various values. When the Commonwealth takes over the post offices there will be, no doubt, a uniform postage stamp design for the whole federation. In the meanwhile there seems to be every probability that the new stamps will stick to us.
Source:
The Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas.), 2 January 1900, p. 2, column 3 (see untitled news item beginning with “The new stamps”)
Editor’s notes:
Commonwealth = the government of the Commonwealth of Australia, i.e. the federal government of Australia
Empire = in the context of early Australia, the British Empire
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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