STRANGE STAMPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1940, Page 9

STRANGE STAMPS

FLOWERS & FISH IN DESIGN. An unusual exhibition of stamps from all parts of the world will be the next attraction in the Post and Telegraph Philatelic Bureau in the Government Court at the Centennial Exhibition. This display is the twelfth of a series that have attracted much attention since the exhibition opened. This particular display is one of remarkable colour and intricate design and it is arranged into various groups. The marvels of submarine life in the sea gardens on the sea bed of Nassau Harbour in the Bahamas is shown on one stamp, and on another are Caribbean Dolphins. Caribbean Dolphins, which grow to a length of six feet. and are valuable for food to the Cayman Islanders, are coloured a brilliant blue with golden reflections. Their inclusion in the design of a stainp makes it colourful, and most unusual.

A Fijian stamp, which illustrates the spearing of fish by torchlight, is another highlight in the display. From Costa Rica comes a stamp which features the national flower, the Furpie Guaria. To botanists this particular variety of flower is regarded as the most beautiful of its family, and Costa Rican country farm houses are made strangely beautiful as the flower grows on their tiled roofs, as well as on trees, rocks and stone walls. A stamp portraying a rose and a bottle of scent commemorates Bulgaria’s fame for its Attar of Roses. Six thousand, pounds weight of oil is exported annually from Bulgaria and as it takes two or three hundred pounds of rose petals to produce one ounce of oil, it is obvious that rose growing in Bulgaria is not an industry for the average back garden.