b'123685686JOSEPH COOK, POSTMASTER GENERALOF NEW SOUTH WALES, 1894 - 18981897-99 Jubilee Imperforate Die Proof 2d in Deep Blue on thin card (48x43mm), similar to the issued colour. The stamps designer David Henry Souter was a leading exponent of Art Nouveau in Sydney. [A perforated 2d Prussian Blue postage stamp was issued in this design in January 1899].Cook was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as MP for the coalfields seat of Hartley in 1891, in Labors first big breakthrough in Australian politics. It was the first time Labor had won a seat in any parliament in Australia.In 1894, however, Cook was the leader of those parliamentarians who refused to accept the Labor Partys decision to make all members sign a pledge to be bound by decisions of the Parliamentary Labor Party (Caucus). Cooks protest was based on Labors attitude to the tariff question in particular, with his preference for free trade being increasingly at odds with his party. By the end of the year, he had become a follower of George Reids Free Trade Party, and for years afterwards he was seen as a class traitor by Labor. He became an invaluable ally of Reid, despite the fact that the two men had distinctly different characters, and remained colleagues only at a distance.Cook was appointed Postmaster-General of New South Wales when Reid formed a government in August 1894. He chaired two intercolonial post and telegraph (P&T) conferences in 1896, at which the Australian colonies agreed to fund a Pacific Cable linking Australia to North America. In opening the first conference, he spoke of the federal spirit [.] animating most of our Australasian national endeavours at the present time.$300500685687 688JOSEPH COOK, POSTMASTER GENERAL JOSEPH COOK, POSTMASTER GENERALOF NEW SOUTH WALES, 1894 - 1898 OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 1894 - 18981897 Jubilee composite colour trial comprising a triptych of 1d,1897 Jubilee composite colour trial comprising a triptych of 1d, 2d & 2d imperforate proof impressions in purple, on glazed2d & 2d imperforate proof impressions in brown, on glazed paper (143x93mm). paper (143x93mm).$400600 $400600 '