SWIMMING MAILMAN VISITS DOMINION
AUCKLAND, Jan. 4. For 11. years tli,e swimming mailman of Niua Foou, Tonga, Mr. Charles S. Ramsay arrived at Auckland by the Union Company motor ship Matua on Saturday to spend a holiday in New Zealand. Mr. Ramsay, who is accompanied by his wife, was the first white man to organise and operate the Niua Foou mail service which made the name "Tin Can Island" known throughout the world. Mr. Ramsay was manager at Niua Foou for Morris Hedstrom Ltd. from 1921* to 1932. Before he came to the island, he said, the natives occasionally used to swim out to visiting steamers to receive or to deliver mail. Attempts had been made at other times to send mail ashore by rocket. This practice was unsatisfact--ory because mail packets frequently went astray or caught fire from rocket sparks. There were times when it was possible to launch a boat but the swimming delivery was the only reliable alternative. '
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Chronicle (Levin), 5 January 1948, Page 3
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161SWIMMING MAILMAN VISITS DOMINION Chronicle (Levin), 5 January 1948, Page 3
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