THE "TIN-CAN" MAIL

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1934, Page 14

THE "TIN-CAN" MAIL

Philatelists in search of novelty should take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the Marama's cruise from Auckland on August 7 to the South Sea Islands, and have letters post-marked by tho "tincan mail" of the island of Niuafoou. Lying midway on the 600-raile stretch between Fiji and Samoa, Niuafoou is a lonely little place, with a population of about •_ a thousand natives and a couple of whites. It is an active volcano, the whole centre of the island being a crater lake, surrounded by a ring of cliffs, from the top: of which there is a steep fall to the sea. There is neither lagoon nor harbour, and' only one or two precarious landing places for boats. When steamers call off the island with mails,-these.:'are sealed in tin cans and thrown overboard. The natives used to swim off to pick, them up, but since one of _ the] islanders was eaten by a shark swimming has become unpopular with them, and nowadays a canoe comes out. Stamp-collectors wishing to obtain the postmarks of the tin-can mail on their envelopes should send an addressed, envelope under cover to the purser, s.s. Jlarama, Auckland, before August 7, accompanied by loose New Zealand stamps to the value ,of 5d (2d for i!:u necessary Tongan stamp and 3d chareed■for landing the mail). The letters will lie dispatched again from Niuafoou by t!-e hPst outward mail. ■-~-■.■ •

The thanks of the Board of Goyernors of the Hutt Valley High School were last evening expressed to Captain Olphert fo* the gift of a complete bound set of the "National Geographical Magazine" for 1933, and complete sets of "Punch" and "Blue Peter," and to Mr. J. C. Burns for the gift of fifty novels to the library.