The "Tin Can" Mailman

WHEN MR. C. S. RAMSAY arrived re cently in Auckland from Tonga, the newspapers described him as the man who inaugurated the famous “Tin Can Mail” from the storm-swept island of Niuafoou, in the ’twenties.

Mr J. D Whitcombe, writing to “NZ Herald,” says Mr. Ramsay did not in augurate the unique mail system. He said that the method was adopted by Mr. Arthur Tindall, who used to seal the mail in a kerosene tin and, with the tin tied to a light pole, he and his Tongan lads would swim out from the rough water to deliver the mail to either the “Atua,” “Tofua” or ‘Navua” the

three vessels which carried on the Is lands service until the Depression. Mr.

Ramsav arrived in the island some three vears latfer, as the representative of Morris, Headstrom Ltd., and carried on the service.