Note 176 — Chapter IV · ON POSTAGE-STAMPS.

Our colonies issue their own stamps, with different designs. Some of them are emblematical; the Swan River Territory using the design of a "Swan," and the Cape of Good Hope choosing that of "Hope" reclining; but they are gradually adopting the English plan of a simple profile of the sovereign. The portrait of our Queen appears on two hundred and forty varieties of stamps. Nearly all those used in the colonies, and even some for foreign governments, are designed, engraved, printed, and embossed in London, and many of them are much prettier than the products of our own Stamp-Office. The principal houses for the manufacture of colonial stamps, are Messrs. De la Rue & Co. and Perkins, Bacon, & Co. of Fleet Street. See also Dr. Gray's Handbook, p. 8.