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POSTAGE-STAMPS. Pictorial Stamps. During the year all denominations of the New Zealand pictorial stamps were issued on paper bearing the multiple watermark. Supplies of the 9d. denomination are now printed at the Government Printing Office, Wellington, by the lithographic offset process. New plates were used to print supplies of the |d., Id., and 2§d. stamps. Postal Stationery. The stamp booklet was replaced during the year by a smaller booklet containing stamps of the Id. pictorial series printed from a new plate. Advertisements of Government Departments appear in this booklet. Change of Paper for Local Printings. A change from Cowan to Wiggins-Teape paper was made during the year for the production of surface-printed stamps. " Official " Stamps. The l|d. and 4d. denominations of the pictorial stamps printed on multiple-watermarked paper were issued overprinted " Official " in July and August respectively. Health Stamp. For the 1936 " Health " stamp a special stamp of the usual denomination, 2d. (Id. for postage and Id. for the Health Fund) was issued. The dominant feature of the stamp, which was designed by Mr. J. Berry, Wellington, and engraved and printed at the Stamp-printing Branch of the Commonwealth Bank at Melbourne, was the countenance of a young girl framed by a lifebuoy bearing the slogan " Safeguard Health." In the background there was a typical health-camp scene, and at the top sprays of flowering Kowhai flanked the name " New Zealand." Following the issue of the stamps on 2nd November, another highly successful campaign to obtain funds for Children's Health Camps was conducted by officers of the Department in co-operation with Health Stamp committees in various parts of the Dominion. The stamps were withdrawn from sale on the 16th January, and the final results of the campaign were as follows : Number of stamps sold, 1,449,980 ; donations, £8,718 Bs. 4d. ; net amount payable to Health Stamp committees, £14,499 Bs. 2d. Anzac Stamps. The twenty-first anniversary of Anzac Day was commemorated by the issue, from the 27th April to the 20th June, of a special postage-stamp in the denominations of |-d. and Id. The stamps were sold at Id. and 2d., respectively, and half of the proceeds was transferred to the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association for the relief of distress among ex-soldiers. The stamps depicted a typical New Zealand soldier against a perspective of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli. Sales of the stamps were as follows : id. plus fd., 1,840,810; Id. plus Id., 1,179,218. Chamber of Commerce Stamps. The Conference of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, held for the first time in New Zealand in October, 1936, was commemorated by the issue on the Ist October of a special series of postage stamps of five denominations —|d., Id., 4d., and 6d. The designs were prepared by Mr. L. C. Mitchell, Wellington, and engraved (by the intaglio line process) and printed at the Stamp-printing Branch of the Commonwealth Bank at Melbourne. Each of the designs was descriptive of some phase of the Dominion's industrial and commercial activities, wool being represented by the |-d. (green), dairy produce by the Id. (red), meat by the (blue), fruit by the 4d. (mauve), and shipping by the 6d. (red-brown). The Conference was held from the Ist to the 7th October at the Wellington Town Hall, where a post and telegraph office was maintained for the convenience of delegates. A special date-stamp, with appropriate wording, was provided for use at the office. Owing to the unprecedented demand for the stamps, stocks of the 2|d., 4d., and 6d. denominations were depleted earlier than was anticipated—the 2|d. and 4d. on the 6th October and the 6d. on the 7th October—notwithstanding that stocks greatly in excess of normal requirements were obtained. As the stamps were printed in Australia it was not possible to obtain additional supplies before the date of withdrawal, the 31st October. The number of stamps issued was as follows : |d., 3,504,096 ; Id., 5,976,096 ; 2fd., 357,696 ; 4d., 364,896 ; 6d., 441,696. Cook Islands Stamps. The New Zealand stamps of the denominations 2s. and 3s. (King George) and 2s. 6d., 55., 10s., and £1 (coat-of-arms) over-printed " Rarotonga " were withdrawn from sale on the 14th July, 1936, and replaced on the 15th July by the same types and denominations overprinted " Cook Islands." The name on the complete series, -Jd. to £5, is now uniform.

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