STAMP STORY A Christmas stamp from Christmas Is.

Press, 18 December 1976, Page 15

STAMP STORY A Christmas stamp from Christmas Is.

K. W. ANTHONY

Many countries nowadays issue Christmas stamps every year, but there is no denying that Christmas stamps from Christmas Island have a special appeal. They have appeared annually since 1969, but most of the designs have featured conventional Christmas motifs. Only the 1973 issue, illustrated here, gives at least a hint of Christmas Island’s tropical setting by including a map of the island in the midst of the blue sea. As regards the location of the island, the stamp leaves the onlooker in no doubt, since the words “Indian Ocean” appear in the design. This is not just for the benefit of those whose knowledge of geography may be a little shaky; it also serves to distinguish this island, which is Australian territory and lies between Malaysia and Australia, from another of the same name which is in the central Pacific. The former Christmas Island is so called becausl it was discovered on Christmas Day, 1643. It was then uninhabited —

and might; have remained so if ‘phosphate deposits had not been found there. Now phosphate mining is an important industry. As befits a small and remote island only some 52 square miles in area, many of the stamps of Christmas Island depict fish of various kinds. Even the chief settlement has the picturesque name of flying Fish Cove — which is duly marked on the map to be seen on the stamp. But that name arises not directly from any denizen of the deep, but from a visit by H.M.S. Flying Fish in ISB6 The other Christmas Island, in the Pacific, hit the headlines in 1956 when it was chosen as a nuclear testing site. At one time this island too had stamps, though not official ones. * A company which ran coconut plantations there introduced its own local stamps about the time of the First World War. These were used to collect a fee on letters carried by the company'-, schooner to the nearest port of call, where the mail was handed over to the authorities for onward transmission.