THE COLOMBOPHILE 81 



" Pigeongram " stamp and a picture of the 

 "Feathered Postmen" who carried the mails. As 

 this is my sole connection with pigeons, I may 

 perhaps be forgiven for obtruding this personal 

 note, in defence of which, however, I can truly 

 say that Mr. Tegetmeier was greatly interested 

 in the postcard referred to. Apart from our 

 articles, public attention in Great Britain was 

 first generally called to this far-distant local 

 service by the sending of a loyal address to the 

 (then) Duke of York when in New Zealand on 

 his famous Australian tour, from the inhabitants 

 of the Great Barrier Island " per pigeon-post," 

 and a brief description of its origin and use may 

 be deemed not out of place here and now. 



This New Zealand pigeon-post owed its in- 

 ception to the fact that the inhabitants of Great 

 Barrier Island needed a means of communication 

 between themselves and the mainland quicker 

 and more frequently than the one steamer weekly 

 which visited the island. The Government not 

 seeing its way to make a cable connection with 

 the island (the population of which numbered 

 scarcely 700 souls) it was left to private enterprise 

 to establish a speedy and inexpensive system of 

 communication. The solution of the problem 

 was suggested by the use of pigeons to carry 

 dispatches to Auckland on the occasion of the 

 wreck of "S.S. Wairarapa," and accordingly birds 

 were trained both ways over the sixty miles of 



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