Pacific stamp box

Many Pacific countries are very depen dent upon the sale of stamps and in some cases their economies are virtual ly supported by the revenues of their philatelic bureaus. Stamps are the largest revenue earners for Pitcairn Island and Niuafo’ou, to name jtst two.

Stamps have also been the cause of government embarrassment as in the case of the 1978 Cook Islands elections when there was a scandal over use of Philatelic Bureau money for election purposes. Indeed, stamp policies have been the subject of frequent and often heated debate in several Pacific coun tries. I intend to cover this area in a later feature ... what you might call the politics of stamps.

Philatelists have always been attracted by Pacific stamps. A recent survey conducted by Australia Post asked collectors to nominate those countries whose stamps they collected.

From that survey the following order of popularity emerged. The percentage of respondents interested in each country is also shown. In brackets is the

*1 Australia 98% (94%) *2 Australian Antarctic Territory 57% (52%) 3 New Zealand 45% (29%) 4 United Kingdom 43% (26%) *5 Papua New Guinea 39% (34%) 6 United States 34% (16%) 7 Canada 29% (13%) *8 Norfolk Island 26% (27%) *9 Christmas Island 24% (27%) *lO Cocos (Keeling) Islands 24% (28%) *ll Fiji 24% (17%) 12 France 24% (9%) 13 Italy 22% (-) 14 West Germany 21% (10%) 15 Japan 20% (9%) 16 Greece 18% (-) *l7 Nauru 14% (15%) 18 China 14% (-) 19 Irish Republic 13% (-) *2O Pitcairn Islands 12% (10%) 21 Cook Islands 12% (7%) 22 Israel 11% (7%) 23 Solomons Islands 11% (6%) 24 United Nations 11% (7%) 25 Tonga 10% (5%) *26 Western Samoa 10% (11%) 27 New Caledonia 9% (4%) 28 Vanuatu 8% (4%) 29 Niue 6% (3%) 30 Vatican City State 6% (-) 31 Kiribati 4% (3%) 32 Tuvalu 4% (2%)

percentage indicated in the 1979 sur vey. Those countries whose stamps are sold at the Australian Philatelic Sales Centres are indicated by asterisks.

The top Pacific countries after Aus tralia and New Zeaqland are Papua New Guinea, Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Fiji. These results reflect stamp issuing policies and I shall discuss this fascinating topic in a future feature.

International Stamp Dis

Play

Of great significance to the Pacific stamp scene has been the Australian Philatelic Exhibition, Ausipex. It was the first international stamp exhibition ever held in the Pacific region and was staged at the Melbourne Exhibition Building from September 21 to 30.

Some of the world’s best stamp exhibitions were on display and stamp dealers and bureaus from all over the world were represented, selling stamps and doing promotional work.

Most of the Pacific regions were represented and it was good to see them doing a brisk trade. A highlight of the show was surely the magnificent philatelic pieces from the collection of the British Royals by special, personal, permission of the Queen.

More than 40 countries (including most Pacific countries), issued special Ausipex stamps, special postmarks or souvenir cards. For the Pacific it was a particularly important event. It encour aged people to begin collecting, to share with each other, to leam more about their hobby from visiting experts,

to see stamps which had never before been shown in this part of the world, and it promoted sales of the stamps of this region.

Someone calculated that to see the half million stamps on display the keen visitor would have to walk 2.5 kilometres along the wide aisles set up at the Exhibition Building. And if that same keen visitor had spent 10 seconds on every stamp he would have been there from noon to 10 pm for 10 days.

It was a wonderfully-well organised show, with plenty of room around the stalls, and an enormous amount of information available. Not even the most ardent anti-philatelist could have remained uninterested in the multitude of ways one may go about stamp collecting. One of the most successful promotions at the exhibition had to be the “souvenir folder.” People of all ages, but especially children, could be seen running from one postal adminis tration stand to the other having a stamp stuck on the appropriate page and then marked with the country’s

special Ausipex postmark. With 63 countries represented in the show, that alone made for a very busy day of stamp visiting.

The atmosphere at Ausipex was great. Everyone was friendly and keen to help, even though a stamp sale might not have been involved every time, and the universality of the hobby was well demonstrated.

New Issues

Republic of Nauru Four stamps were released on July 24, 1984 in 25, 30 and 50 cent denominations. They featured the only two species of butter fly found on Nauru. Papua New Guinea; a lOt stamp was issued on August 9 to commemorate the opening of the parliament house. On the same day a 5 kina stamp was issued featuring the bird of paradise. On September 21 four stamps were issued depicting ceremonial shields and drums.

Solomon Islands: a 95 cent stamp was issued featuring the swimmer Alick Wickham who devised the crawl stroke which was the forerunner of modem freestyle. Tonga: A set of four stamps was issued on July 28, commemorating the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

These are in 295, 475, T 51.50, Ts 3 denominations Niuafo’ou Four stamps were issued on March 7 commemorat ing wild life found on or around the island.

Issues Expected

The following countries will issue stamps during the remainder of 1984 as detailed below:

The following countries and their issues for the remainder of 1984 are: AUSTRALIA October 22nd 75th Anniversary, Gould League — 30c Victorian Arts Centre —

30C Pse

October 31st Christmas 24c, 30c, 50c, 85c, 40c aerogramme November Bicentennial Collection — 9 stamps 150th Aniversary of Victoria — 2 stamps COCOS October 31st Christmas

(Keeling)

Islands

KIRRIBATI November 21st Legends 12c, 30c, 35c, 50c NEW ZEALAND October 3rd Christmas — 3 stamps December 5th Military History — 4 stamps and miniature sheet NORFOLK October 9th Christmas

Island

November 6th Rev. G. Nobbs — 4 stamps PAPUA NEW November 6th Centenary of Colonisation GUINEA 2 x lOt, 2 x 45t November 21st Scenes lOt, 25t, 40t, 60t SAMOA November 7th Religious paintings — 3 stamps