FANNING ISLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 150, 28 June 1939, Page 3

FANNING ISLAND

NEW ZEALAND’S DISTANT POST OFFICE

RECENT CHANGE IN CONTROL

For thirty-seven years there has been a branch of the New Zealand Post Office at Fanning Island, although it is not part of the Dominion territory. This arrangement ceased recently and the postal affairs of the island will, in future, be under the control of H.M. High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, who is in charge of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colonly. The postmaster was the superintendent of the cable staff.

Fanning Island, 250 miles north of the equator, is a cable station cZi the route from Auckland via Suva to Vancouver. The station was opened in 1902, and the trans-Pacilic mail steamers called there regularly on the voyages to and from Auckland. The first superintendent of the cable station, Mr David Cuthbert, realising the value of direct communication by steamer and telegraph with New Zealand for obtaining mails and provisions, represented to the department how great would be the convenience to his isolated community of a post office providing facilities for the receipt and despatch of mails (including parcels) and the purchase of postage stamps. The department readily agreed to the proposal, and the agency was opened on November 29, 1902, in Mr. Cothbert’s charge. A money-order office was opened on October 16, 1903, and a branch of the post office savings-bank on May 8, 1907. An Historic Raid. The history of this demote New Zealand post office was quite uneventful until October, 1914, when it was raided by a German cruiser. "I regret to inform you," reported the cable superintendent and postmaster, Mi. Albert Smart, "that the German cruiser Nurnberg made a raid on this island on the morning of September 7, landing an armed party under the cover of the French dag. My wife was thoroughly searched and the following New Zealand property taken; Cash, £33 6s 8d; postage stamps, £3B 2s; total, £7l 8s Bd, which I have entered in my accounts closed to-day, and am obliged to ask that I be allowed credit for this loss." In addition to raiding the office, the Nurnberg party cut the cable, but communication with Suva was restored on September 23, and to the Canadian side on November 6. The Nurnberg’s career was highly eventful for the next few months, but it quickly came to an end. Proceeding from Fanning Island into the South Pacific, it participated in the Coronel action under Vice-Admiral von Spee on November 1, 1914, and in the counterstroke of the British under Vice-Ad-miral Sturdee in the Battle of the Falklands on December 8, when lhe British cruiser Kent sank the Nurnberg and only seven of her crew were picked up.