AN ISLAND MAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 95, 22 April 1924, Page 9

AN ISLAND MAIL.

HOW DONE IN NIUAFOOU, NEWS IN A BISCUIT TIN. Dr. Casey Woods, in the course of an 6 interesting letter re his travels in the Pacific, tells of how His Majesty's mails were landed at the isolated island of Niuafoou. This is the best account yet published of this extraordinary event. He says: We did not reach Niuafoou until 10 p.m. and on a rainy and windy evening. First the dark form of the mountainous island how like Dominica it seemed, loomed up through the mists of the gloomy night, and shortly afterwards we saw that a large bonfire had been built on the shore, and still later we saw a small but clear light in the water as we approached the shore. The enginos were stopped, but the captain did not dare to head in too close, to that iron bound coast, so we drifted along about six hundred yards from the island. In ' a short time the light on the water came bobbing along—nearer and nearer the steamer—until at last, within the area illuminated by the searchlight of the Tofua, we made out fiv_; naked figures, each provided with a bamboo or cocoanut pole, seven or eight feet long, that served the double purpose ef a flpat and as a prevention against being dashed against the sharp rocks pn the return to shore. One man held aloft a lighted lantern tied to a bamboo stick, three others had, each, various small, oil-cloth-covered packages, mostly mail matter, tied to a cleft stick, which they held, like the lantern away from the water. Number five served as a reserve, and_ took turns with the others in propelling shorewards a large, airtight biscuit tin, bound around and Deing reinforced with a repe. This latter contained the mail addressed to Niuafoou, as well as a collection of magazines, and newspapers, for the "benefit of the literates—the great majority of the Tongans, under the influence of compulsory education, belong to that class—and intended to serve until the next monthly distribution. The steamer's searchlight showed these Tongans swimming about in the "spptlight" like frogs in an aquarium. When their cargo had been drawn on board, by means of buckets, let down from the "Tofua's" upper deck, the large tin container was thrown overboard, to be pushed ashore by these wonderful Tongan swimmers. We watched then* until they disappeared into the tropical night. Of course the value and purppse of the 'lantern was quite apparent, but the facetious captain explained—for the benefit of some eager questioners— that it was intended to prevent him from "tangling up Tongans in his propeller blades," somebody having discovered that natives so treated were rarely as effective after as before such treatment.