“TIN CAN MAIL.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20361, 19 July 1934, Page 5

“TIN CAN MAIL.”

Fifteen Thousand Letters for Niuafou. CRUISE SHIP’S VISIT. (Special to the " Star.”) AUCKLAND, July 19. The tiny island of Niuafou. midway in the vast Pacific between Samoa and Fiji, has suddenly become a centre of interest for philatelists, and in a few days’ time Mr. W. G. Quensell, who is trader, storekeeper and postmaster on the island, will be staggered by the size of his mail.

Niuafou is also known as “ Tin Can. Island,” because, owing to the difficulty of landing in a boat, all mail has to be placed in a tin can, lashed to a spar and pushed out in front of a swimmer. For years that had been the custom followed by Mr. Quensell, according to Mrs. Quensell, who lives in Auckland, but now stamp collectors all over the world, and in America in particular, have come to hear of this mail, with its queer overstamp.

On July 24 the Matson cruise ship City of Los Angeles is scheduled to reach the island. The “Star’s” San Francisco correspondent says that the company let it be known through the publications followed by stamp collectors and through die daily newspapers that it would irrange for a “return mail” to the

sland. The response was immediate, and >efore the mail closed there were 15,000 otters waiting in the company’s office, formally the island receives perhaps 200 letters a year. There are several types of stamps, but the ones likely to be used for the return of the collectors’ covers will bear the picture of the native ruler, Queen Salote, which will be stamped “Tin Can Mail.”

Charles Stuart Ramsey, who for 11 years was the professional mail swimmer at Tin Can Island, will go ov.r the side from the liner to swim the mail through the half-mile of open water to the shores of the island.