“Tin-Can” Mail
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
First Delivery at Niuafoou for a Year
THE “tin-can” mail was delivered at - B- Niuafoou Island in the Tongan Group for the first time for over a year in the middle of July. The Monowai on a cruise in Central Pacific called at the little island to drop eagerly-awaited letters.
The novelty of the “tin-can” mail has always attracted philatelists, and the steamer carried a large batch of letters sent by Australian and New Zealand stamp collectors. Niuafoou is dependent for its mail on very infrequent visits of itinerant schooners, and consequently the stamps and postmark are highly valued by collectors.
To obtain the Niuafoou postmark on en velopes, letters were addressed to an in tended recipient and sent in another envelope to the Union Co., together with loose Australian or New Zealand stamps for 6d. Of this amount 2|d was for the Tongan stamp and the balance for the Islanders’ service in handling the mail.
The envelopes were taken to the island by the Monowai, and after being dealt with there are to be returned by a later boat.
Some months may elapse before the letters reach the addressee, for, apart from the infrequency of vessels calling there, occa sionally delay is caused by the island’s supply of Tongan stamps running short.
The population of Niuafoou is about 1000 natives, and one or two Europeans. It has no harbour, and until recently the natives swam out to sea for the mail which was put in a sealed tin, thrown overboard, and then retrieved by the swimmers. Since one of the natives was carried off by a shark this practice has been discontinued. Now adays the natives paddle out in canoes to pick up the tin. The name of the “tin can” mail has extended to Niuafoou it self, and it is frequently referred to as “Tin-Can Island.”
Niuafoou is a volcanic island about five miles in diameter, and the entire centre is comprised of a crater lake surrounded by steep cliffs. It produces some of the big gest coconuts in the Pacific, and one of its few birds, the malua, lays the largest egg in proportion to its size of any bird in the world.