“TIN CAN” ISLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 4

“TIN CAN” ISLAND

NOVEL MAIL DELIVERY. LAKE IN OLD CRATER. Niuafoou, which is on the outskirts of the Tongan group, nearly 400 miles from Tongatabu, is roughly three and a half miles long by three miles wide. It has a population of about 1200 and is of volcanic origin, having a long record of serious eruptions which devastated parts of the island. It is perhaps better known as “Tin Can” Island from the unique method of mail delivery. Mail is sealed in cans on board ship, thrown overboard off the island, and then taken ashore by canoe. In the past swimmers used to take the mail. The coconuts produced on the island are reputed to be the biggest in the world.

A large lake, which lies in the old crater of the island, contains islets, which themselves have craters. Hot springs are found in various parts of the lake. The island is merely a rin£ of land abotit one and a-quarter miles wide surrounding the lake, two and three-quarter miles in diameter. Three quarters of the western and half of the southern side of the land rim is one continuous lava field, the result of two eruptions—that on the south in 1856, which destroyed the village of Ahau, and that on the west in April, 1929, where the village of Futu was overwhelmed. These eruptions destroyed one-fifth of the land.

Excepting the lava fields, which run gradually into the sea. the balance of the land rises out of the ocean in cliffs 60 to 70 feet high, forming a gently sloping plateau about three-quarters of a mile wide, then rising suddenly to a ridge, approximately 400 feet high. Surmounting this ridge are eight volcanic cones with elevations of from 500 to 700 feet above the sea. From the ridge the land drops in many cases almost perpendicularly to the level of the lake shore. The water of the lake is alkaline.

The discovery of Niuafoou by the Dutch dates from 1616, although owing to its small dimensions and smaller commercial importance it was practically unknown for many years.