Stamps

Romance In

Philatelist Illustrates Some Queer Pacific History

A SORE point with the British Solo mon Islands administration in the early part of the century, was the fact that the Territory did not have its own postage stamp; but had to use the one issued by the High Commission for the Western Pacific at Suva, Fiji, said Mr. Walter Finigan, headmaster of the Correspondence School, Blackfriars, in the course of a lecture to the Pacific Islands Society in Sydney on August 28.

The 8.5.1. Resident Commissioner had made many applications to the Governor for permission to issue a 8.5.1. stamp, but each time the matter had been put aside Finally, in 1906, the exasperated R.C. took matters into his own hands, and sent to Sydney for a specimen. This arrived at Tulagi in due course and, although the quotation for the order was quite satisfactory, the stamp was most definitely not. The Sydney designer, apparently, did not know anything about the Solomon Islands, so the R.C. set to and designed a stamp showing a Solo mon Islands war canoe.

The sketch was sent to a Sydney printer who prepared the necessary plates and printed an issue of stamps.

The Commissioner had a bond drawn up with the proprietor of the printing firm, which provided that on the com pletion of the order, the plates and any damaged prints were to be destroyed; otherwise a forfeiture of £5OO could be claimed.

As communications were rather irregu lar in those days, it was some time after

the stamps had actually been issued before the Governor at Suva became aware of what had happened. He was furious, but as the Australian Govern ment has recognised the stamp, and had handled mail bearing it, there was little he could do. He had no alternative, other than to sanction the issue. It was not for many years afterwards, how ever, that the necessary Act was passed, making the stamp legal.

Meanwhile, the proprietor of the print ing firm had retired, and a company took over the business. One day, one of the executives found the original plates of a stamp. It was the Solomon Islands stamp, and they had not been destroyed according to the agreement between the Commissioner and the printer. About 200 sets of these stamps were then run off. They were not per forated, but were distributed among Sydney philatelists. As a result, the retired printer paid £5OO to the Adminis tration. He was told that he need not do this, but he held the view that a breach of faith had occurred, and should be paid for. So, actually, the first two issues of the Solomon Islands “canoe stamp” were unauthorised.

MR. FMnigan then traced, with his stamps, the discoveries of Cook, Tasman. La Perouse, Bougainville, etc., who ventured out into unknown waters to discover and name the Pacific islands, right up to 1935, when transpor tation in the Pacific took another form —aviation. Two stamps, one depicting the inauguration of sea, and the other, air power in the Pacific were shown.

The first commemorated Magellan’s arrival at Guam, and the second the giant Pan American Airways flying-boat, which lands at the island en route from America to China.

Nauru has seen three different ad ministrations and, for each, there has been a different stamp. German stamps were used from 1888 to 1914; then, when the “Messina” arrived from Rabaul with 66 soldiers, British administration commenced. An English stamp was issued, over-printed “N.W. Pacific Islands”. After the war, when the island was placed under British Empire con trol, Nauru was given its own stamp.

Mr. Finigan said that Nauru might have been taken over by Japan, for just a few hours after the “Messina” had landed her troops, a Japanese battle ship, with two transports, arrived. The Japanese had just seized the Marshall and Caroline Islands and were appar ently ready to occupy Nauru, had the Australians not been there.

MR. Finigan explained that Australian stamps are used on Willis, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. New Zealand stamps are used at Pitcairn Island, but in October this year the little island will have a series of its own. New Guinea, Panua, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tahiti, and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, all have stamps of their own.

For many years officials on Hull and Sydney Islands—mere specks in the Phoenix Group—were without a cancel ling stamp. They had to write the date and name of the island across the stamp. To remedy this, the Administra tion had cancelling stamps made and sent one to each of these islands in January, 1940. They were useless, how ever, as the dates only went up to 1939, and so the officials are still cancelling letters by hand.

Until quite recently, Christmas Island had a more or less private stamp. In 1914, a priest (the late Father Rougier)

obtained a lease of the island and issued a stamp. It depicted the yacht in which he travelled to and from Tahiti, but was only good until it reached an official post office. Gilbert and Ellice Islands stamps are now used on the island.

Another interesting stamp in Mr. Finigan’s collection is a Fiji stamp cancelled on the vessel “Amra”, which figured so prominently in the capture of Count von Luckner during the last war.

MR. Finigan also explained the use of “half-stamps”—stamps cut in two pieces diagonally. The German post office in Samoa was destroyed by fire in 1895, and it was found that all of the 5-pfennig stamps had been lost. Officials, to meet the situation, cut some 10 pfennig stamps in half and sold them at 5 pfennigs each. This happened frequently, many years ago, when com-

munications made the renewal of stamp supplies difficult.

In 1898 a unique postal service was inaugurated between the Great Barrier Islands and Auckland, New Zealand, Letters were attached to carrier pigeons and the stamps used on these were called “pigeongrams”. Two companies commenced a daily service to Auck land, but it was discontinued after the telegraph cable was laid.

The Samoan administration issued a special series of stamps in memory of Robert Louis Stevenson, who died in the Territory in 1894. They comprise an illustration of his home (now the resi dence of the Administrator); a portrait of R.L.S.; and his tomb at the top of Mount Vaea, at Vailima.

“New Zealand has always been enter prising when it came to making money out of stamps,” the speaker continued, He told of an experiment the Govern

ment tried in 1896. They let contracts to various firms to advertise on the backs of postage stamps, and advertise ments such as “Sunlight soap for wash ing dogs and prize poultry”, vied with others proclaiming the quality of choice coffees, cloths, perambulators, and jellies, etc. The venture proved a failure, and was discontinued.

TONGAN stamps are always interest ing, concluded Mr. Finigan. One set shows the mysterious Ha’amonga— a huge trilithon of mortised stones not far from Nukualofa, and supposed to have been built in 1200 A.D. Another shows the breadfruit tree under which Tongan kings are consecrated. A third illustrates coral —showing the composi tion of the Tongan Islands; while a fourth, of a Tongan king, recalls the interesting fact that when George Tubou I came to the throne he was aged 48 and ruled for a further 48 years, thus outliving several of his pos sible successors. It was his great grandson, George Taufaahau, who was crowned George Tubou II in 1893, when the first king died at the great age of 96.