Perhaps westerners should have just kept sailing. Sometimes stopping will change a place forever. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Sometimes a stamp can be a great way to see a places best self. This is the case with the fisherman on todays stamp. Fisherman on colonial stamps can be a little bit of a cliché. The Philatelist have covered such stamps from British Guyana and South Vietnam, from when it was a virtual USA colony. Fishing though was one area that native Nauruns exceled. Without outside help, they had figured out how to transfer young ocean fish into a freshwater fishery where they could be a more stable source of food. Something worth celebrating colonial status or not.
Todays stamp is issue A3, a 1/2 Penny stamp issued by Nauru on Febuary 6th, 1954 when it was a United Nations mandate administered by Australia. It was part of a nine stamp issue in various denominations that showed views of the island. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint. Being used would double the value, a sure sign of a stamp issue meant for collectors rather than postage.
Nauru, east of New Guinea was first spotted by a British whaling ship in the 18th century. Upon seeing the ship, natives came out to greet it and there was a friendly interaction. The island’s place was recorded and it was named “Pleasant Island”. Over the next century, ships would stop and trade alcohol and firearms for food and fresh water. This lead to a deadly civil war on the island that cost 25 percent of the population. Germany got a mandate of the island in 1886 and was the first colonial power. During their time, phosphate was discovered on the island and a lucrative mining operation begun. The Australians landed at the beginning of World War I and ruled through the Australian phosphate commission. During World War II, Nauru faired very badly. Early in the war German cruisers shelled and greatly damaged the phosphate mine. Revenge for the mine being taken from them? Later the Japanese landed and were quite cruel. Able bodied men were taken to another island to work as laborers and a leper colony was disbanded when the 29 sufferers were sent out to sea on a boat and sunk. The Australians finally showed up again months after the end of the war to take the Japanese surrender, get them home and retrieve the survivors from the laborers sent abroad. It was decided on a UN mandate for the island administered by Australia.
The UN had a paradox with Nauru. It was opposed to colonies and yet the phosphate mine through off 5 times what was needed to administer it. The UN understood that the excess revenue would corrode the island but yet they could not abide by continued colonial status. Independence happened in 1968 with the excess revenue of the phosphate mine automatically deposited in a sovereign wealth fund. For a brief period, Nauru was one of the richest countries in the world per capita. The wealth fund bought up much real estate around the world so to provide income when the phosphate ran out. It had been seen to that the principal capital of the trust could not be touched, but the corrupt local government got around it by having the island take out loans against the assets of the trust to fund the high living of Naurans.
In the 1990s the phosphate mining was exhausted and all the loans came due. They were not paid and the sovereign wealth fund saw it’s worldwide real estate repossessed. The country is still ruled by the same losers that threw away the wealth. They started desperate schemes to keep money coming in by trying to become a tax haven and taking in unwanted migrants headed for Australia. The migrants in the camp on Nauru were treated so badly that Australian courts ruled the migrants had to be let into Australia to save them. The latest scam is to sue Australia, New Zealand, and the UK for environmental damage from the long ago mining. The countries all paid and of course the money was squandered. Germany has not been sued for finding the phosphate, maybe the WWII shelling made an impression.
Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I ponder why Nauru could not have been left a pleasant island. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting