Fundy Stamp Collectors Club P. O. Box 302 Moncton N.B. E1C 8L4 Since 1997

Note: The graphics from the newsletter are missing. They did not scan well enough to use.

I have not included sections of the newsletter that were date specific to the year 2001

Editorial

Don Mills (506) 384-5107
E-mail: donmillscanada@yahoo.com

Prior to 1900 there was little need for a postal service to the island although from time to time mail was dispatched via passing ships. It has been suggested that the first swimmer delivered mail to a passing ship as early as 1882. Any regularity in mail service came with the first trader, Arthur Tindall who settled in Niuafo'ou in 1902. However, this service was still dependent on the vagaries of the sea and the necessities of the export of the product required (usually bananas or coconut/copra). When Walter George Quensell took up residence on the island in 1919 as the representative of the Burns Philip Trading Company, there was still no regular mail service. Out going mail was usually not franked with Tongan stamps but simply taken to the ships next port of call and mailed by the ships captain or purser. Quensell, who still had family in Ha'apai, wanted to keep in touch with them and aggressively sought a solution to the problem. Jorgen Rosendal in his book "The Happy Lagoon" credits Quensell with the invention of the tin can mail system and with negotiating an agreement with the Union Steamship Company to stop and pick up mail from swimmers (later canoers), whenever the sea permitted. Prior to this time letters were wrapped in oil cloths, attached to a "fau" pole (so named for the buoyant wood of which it was made) and guided out to the passing ship. Now, however, letters were sealed in 40-Ib biscuit tins and floated out to the waiting ship. In a similar manner incoming mail was placed in sealed tins and dropped over the side of the ship for recovery by swimmers/canoeists. Incoming mail could thus be delivered even if the sea did not permit.

By the 1920's cachets began to appear on the envelopes either hand written or affixed by means of a rubber stamp. The earliest cachet simply identified the means of conveyance, Tin Can Mail. Eventually these Tongan franked cachet envelopes became popular with passengers on the ships, tourists and stamp collectors the world over. Quensell was quick to sense an opportunity and developed the multi-lingual stamps, identified specific historical events, developed specific cachets to go with special stamps and a variety of other eye catching designs (e.g. a map of the island.) In 1931 the practice of swimming the mail cans out to the ships stopped after one of the swimmers was killed by a shark. From then on the mail was conveyed by out rigger canoes and the name altered to Tin Can Canoe Mail.

On September 1, 1946 earthquakes hit Niuafo'ou. They continued for nine days. Great cracks opened in the earth and the molten lava released burned throughout the island. By December 22, 1946 the last of the inhabitants were removed from the island and the Tin Can Mail mailman was forced to close the operation. However Quensell was an entrepreneur - he had printed thousands of envelopes and the sale of these Tin Can Mail covers continued for a number of years. I have in my collection a letter to Mr. Frederick Williams of Moncton dated 23-7-1949 wherein Quensell states, "I only gott a few hundred left" - referring to "original Tin Can Mail covers." However, by this time the covers were anything but rare in a letter to a collector in Chicago dated 21-8-1930 he states that in this month he is sending out 22,000 covers ...most to the States. Nevertheless the "Tin Can Mail cover" remains an interesting part of stamp collecting, particularly to those with an interest in the South Pacific. Tin Can Mail Covers are not particularly expensive and are still readily available. Collectors look for covers sent to different locations (England, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, etc.), discern between Tin Can Mail and Tin Can Canoe Mail, and of course the stamps with which the cover is franked. There is a Tonga and Tin Can Mail Study Cir- cle which collectors can join and learn more about Tin Can Mail. This group has published a great number of books and studies on Tin Can Mail. This writer is indebted to some of these publications in the writing of this article as well as to several issues of the journals of the TCMSC, the "Tin Canner".