“TIN-CAN” MAIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22904, 11 June 1936, Page 14

“TIN-CAN” MAIL

MONOWAI’S ISLAND CRUISE The “Tin-can” mail of Niuafoou has always caught the fancy of philatelists. This remote little island, a member of the Tongan group, with a population of about 1000 natives and. one or two white men, has no harbour, and is usually dependent for its mail on the very infrequent visits of itinerant schooners. Until fairly recently the natives swam out for the mail, which was put into a sealed tin and thrown overboard and then retrieved from the sea by the swimmers. This was rather hazardous, and, owing to one of the natives being carried off by a shark, they now come out in canoes to pick up * the cans, the outward mail from the island being hoisted on to the vessel by a line. The name of the “ Tin-can ” mail has even extended to Niuafoou itself, which is often known as “ Tin-can Island.”

The announcement that the Monowai, which will leave Auckland on July 7, will call at Niuafoou in the course of a cruise to the South Sea Islands, will, therefore, be of much interest to stamp collectors. To get postmarks of the “ Tin-can ” mail on envelopes, these should be properly addressed to the intended recipient and sent in another envelope to the Union Steam Ship Company, Auckland, to reach there before July 0, with loose New Zealand stamps for Cd for each envelope sent for postmarking for the necessary Tongan stamp and the balance for the islanders’ services in handling the mail). The envelopes should be of an adequate size to show off the postmarks satisfactorily, about six inches wide by five inches deep. The envelopes will be landed at Niuafoou by the Monowai through the “ Tincan ” mail, and after being dealt with there will he returned by a later opportunity. It may perhaps he two or three months before the letters reach the addressee, as apart from the infrequency of vessels calling at the island, occasionally there is delay through failure of the island’s supply* of Tongan postage stumps. Niuafoou is a strange little volcanic island about five miles in diameter, the whole centre being a crater lake surrounded by a ring of cliffs, from the top of which there is generally a steep fall to the sea. There are active cones on the island, and fairly recent lava fields are visible from the sea. It has two other claims to distinction, in that it produces the largest coconuts in the Pacific, and that one of its few birds, the malna, lays the largest egg in proportion to its size of any bird in the world.