TIN-CAN ISLAND

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 263, 2 August 1929, Page 10

TIN-CAN ISLAND

SCENE OF VOLCANIC ERUPTION Everyone who has made the northern island trip will be Interested in the news of the earthquakes and eruption a Niuafoou, in the Tongan Group, reported by the Tofua, which passed the troubled Island on Sunday last. Niuafoou, or Tin-Can Island, is a small volcanic island that is passed as the steamer proceeds from Apia (Samoa) to Suva (Fiji). It is a few miles off the direct course, but the visit is made to land and pick up mails. The nickname given the island Is on account of the methods which have to be employed to get the mails ashore and off to the ship. Those for the island are soldered up in a kerosene tin, which is thrown over to a native, who, with the aid of a bamboo float, has swum out to the vessel with the outward letters perched on the top of a stick (in order to keep them dry). Tin-Can Island was generally described as an extinct volcano, and contains a lake which was at one time the crater, so that what appears to be a fairly substantial island is little more than a shell. Still the soil is very rich, and the coconuts grown there are said to be the largest in the Pacific. It is also the home of the malar or megapode, a bird which lays remarkably large eggs. The population is about 1100 natives and a couple of white traders (one of whom is Mr. Matthews).