Stamp Story No. 5 PITCAIRN STAMPS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 10

Stamp Story No. 5 PITCAIRN STAMPS

[By Ken Anthony] . If the building shown on this stamp looks on the small side for a school —even a school for the remote Pacific settlement of Pitcairn—it is understandable. For the building is not the school at all, but the schoolmaster’s house. When the stamp was issued in 1957 the mistake was quickly spotted, and a revised design, with a corrected caption, followed in November, 1958. The error was made more surprising because the real Pitcairn school had been faithfully depicted on an earlier stamp—an 8d stamp issued in 1951. Pitcairn, of special interest because of its connexion with the Mutiny on the Bounty, began issuing its own stamps in 1940. Before then, mail was dealt with

by a postal agency of the New Zealand Post Office. But no stamps were used; letters were accepted unstamped, Britain and New Zealand undertaking to deliver mail from Pitcairn at no more than the ordinary inland rate.

Among Pitcairn’s many attractive stamps is one • depicting the Bounty herself under sail. The notorious Captain Bligh has been portrayed on another stamp, and Fletcher Christian, who led the mutiny, has appeared more than once. It was off Tonga, not Pitcairn—that the mutiny took place on April 28, 1789. Some of the mutineers went ashore at Tahiti, where they were later arrested; others, including Christian himself, sailed on to Pitcairn, where they settled down. But when an American ship called in 1808, only one of the original mutineers, John Adams, was still alive. Adams and his house are seen on a ljd stamp issubd in 1940.

Today the Pitcairn community numbers little more than 150— surely the smallest in the world to have its own officially-issued stamps. Most are descendants of the original settlers, and many, are still surnamed Christian.

But what happened to Fletcher Christian is still an unsolved mystery. He is said to have been murdered; but there is also a rumour that he escaped to England with gold taken from the Bounty when she was scuttled off Pitcairn in January, 1790. —(All Rights Reserved. Central Press Features, Ltd.)

No Insurance For Railway Stalls “The Press” Special' Service WELLINGTON, Dec. 30. Underwriters will no longer consider accepting insurances on railway bookstalls. This information has been conveyed to Mr W. W. Waldock, who owns the Lower Hutt Railway Bookstall, by a well-known firm of insurance brokers. In the 12 months Mr Waldock has owned the stall it has been burgled four times. M r Waldock was insured with another company, but it terminated the policy as from November 30 of this year. Mr Waldock has unsuccessfully attempted to get insurance in other directions. The coverage required is for fire, burglary, and theft. A world-wide recognised company replied to his application, stating that owing to his own bad luek and similar experiences elsewhere, underwriters would no longer consider accepting insurances of the nature asked for by Mr Waldock.