DEFACING STAMPS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3169, 25 August 1881, Page 2

DEFACING STAMPS.

[To the Editob of thb Daily Telegeaph.] Sis, —The public in genera!, and business men especially, must be very greatly disturbed by the recent discovery of the robbery of stamps from letters by a clerk in the Napier Post Office. I have seen the stamps, and it is very evident that the most were cut from envelopes containing home letters both by the San Francisco and Brindisi routes. There are two 5s stamps, which ought to be easily traced ; two sets of stamps, value 6d each, have "Petane" written on them by the gender; a few others have terminations of words, such as "ahana" and " ard," &c, and one set is marked with a date as far back as last February, but the most of them are untraceable. Of course any reference to such a subject cannot be; made till after the trial, but my object in writing to you now is to suggest a remedy that would effectually prevent a repetition of such an offence as the one now brought to light. It is that the Government should give the public the right to deface stamps after affixing them to the envelopes. Banks, mercantile houses, and business men, could use punches, and a cross by the pen on the stamps, or the date, would be sufficient for the general public. This is the system in use under the Government of India, and since its introduction the annals of the Indian Post Office have never been as they were before, disgraced by such a crime "as the one now un- ' ravelled.—l am, &c, BUBINESB. : Napier, 28th August, 1881.