A small country has a difficult time with high culture. As New Zealand felt less a part of the wider British Commonwealth, there was a tendency to issue stamps for local figures that may not rise to that level of acclaim. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair, Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Todays stamp is an example of why I am more comfortable with old issues. This was a four stamp issue of NZ authors. None are well known. There is the prerequisite woman, two undistinguished white guys and a Maori writer. The designers clearly planned it out that way. As with racial and sexual quotas with employment, the enterprise tends to lessen the achievement of those given the awards with this criteria.
Todays stamp is issue A328, a 70 cent stamp issued by New Zealand on March 1st, 1989. The four stamps were in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is still worth 70 cents, though now in United States dollars.
Bruce Mason was born in 1921 and served in the army in World War II and in the forestry service post war. He also was a playwright and a founding partner of the Downstage Theatre in Wellington. His most famous work was a semi autobiographical play named “The End of the Golden Weather” It is the story of depression era boy traumatized by local riots who befriends a mentally challenged boy named Firpo. Firpo dreams of running in the Olympics but has no athletic ability and ends up in a mental institution. Sounds like pretty dreary stuff and when made into a movie it was recast as a buddy picture.
Mason went on to many other plays that often hinged on the downsides of the Maori experience, though that was not Mason’s heritage. He also was a critic in the local paper in Wellington. No word whether all his critiques were not dreary enough. Mason died of cancer in 1981 and his Downstage Theatre closed in 2013. No worries, the government has taken up his legacy and not just with the stamp issue. His name is used on a reward to promising local playwrights. They also attached his name to an event venue in Auckland that is preparing to put on a musical based on the life of Nelson Mandela. I am sure all this makes Kiwis very proud. I hope those putting on the Mandela musical will remember the legacy of Mr. Mason and make it dreary. I am confident.
Well my drink is empty and I may pour a few more while I ponder the future of stamp issuance in the pc age. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.