Periodicals so printed, published, and mailed when specially devoted to Religious and to General Education, to Agriculture, or Temperance, or to any branch of Science, will pass free from any one Post-Office to another within the Province. Transient and re-mailed Papers and Periodicals will pass by Post if prepaid by Postage stamp--one halfpenny if not exceeding 3 oz. in weight, and 2d if over 3 oz. Postage Stamps of the value of one halfpenny each will be sold to the public at all the principal Post Offices (including all Money Order Offices), with a discount of 5 per cent. upon purchases of not less than twenty stamps and will be available in prepayment of Newspapers and Periodicals, and of Drop and Town Letters. R. SPENCE, Postmaster-General. The Royal Philatelic Society's book gives the date of the above notice--July 18th, 1857--as the date of issue of the new stamp but, as Mr. Howes observes "it is more likely that the stamp was issued on 1st August, the day the new rates took effect." Although this stamp is generally conceded to be the last of the "pence" values to be issued, until more definite information regarding the date of issue of the 7-1/2d can be procured, this supposition can rest on no more substantial basis than that of mere conjecture. [Illustration] The design is quite unlike that of any of the other values expressed in pence and consists of the conventional profile portrait of the Queen shown on so many of the stamps of the British Empire, within an oval band inscribed CANADA POSTAGE, at the top, and ONE HALF PENNY, at the bottom. There are no numerals or inscriptions in the corners but merely a plain pattern of diagonally crossed lines. Mr. Howes states "the stamp was printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten, with the right marginal imprints as described for the series of 1851." From the Postmaster-General's report we gather that 1,341,600 halfpenny stamps were received prior to October 1st, 1857, though whether these were all in one consignment or not is not quite clear. At any rate judging from the statement in the same report that "the Department has been led to take measures for obtaining ... sheets perforated" it would appear that the above quantity comprised all the imperforate stamps of this denomination. On the other hand the total number of halfpenny stamps issued was 3,389,960 and catalogue quotations for the imperforate and the perforated varieties hardly bear out the supposition that only the first lot were issued without perforation.