From left to right :
10 F : Eastern Reef Heron (太平洋岩鷺) ; 20 F : Audubon's Shearwater (奥杜邦氏鹱)
26 F : Great Frigate Bird (軍艦鳥) ; 54 F : Red-tailed Tropic Bird (紅尾鸏)
Wallis and Futuna (1999)
29th October, 2009. Mata-Utu
10 F : Eastern Reef Heron (太平洋岩鷺) ; 20 F : Audubon's Shearwater (奥杜邦氏鹱)
26 F : Great Frigate Bird (軍艦鳥) ; 54 F : Red-tailed Tropic Bird (紅尾鸏)
Wallis and Futuna (1999)
29th October, 2009. Mata-Utu
We can found that many different irregular geometric squares in the South Pacific in the map, this is the Oceania region we are familiar with. Except the so-called well-known Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, which all of them have direct flights with Hong Kong; even many people will associate French Polynesia with the name ‘a bevy of beauties’, for other countries will be a vague impression, such as Vanuatu is an ‘immigration paradise’, celebrate the New Year twice a day in Kiribati, and Nauru is a bird-shit island country where China donates it a lot of money, other than thats it is really difficult to say what they are. Many ignorance people will rely on the one-way perception of television news to think that the powerful China has gradually become influential in this region, in recent years those people with illusion that China can challenge the regional hegemonies of the United States and Australia, but they do not know that the South Pacific is still a backyard of France owned 3 overseas collectives (collectivité d’outre-mer) with a total area of 22.884km² since the 18th century, the scale is only after the Solomon Islands, except for Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in narrow sense of Oceania.
2 of the 3 overseas collectives of France in this region are French Polynesia (Polynésie française), commonly known as Tahiti; and New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie) upgraded to a Sui generis collectivity on 2025, these are almost well-known of people; However, not all people known where is Wallis et Futuna. It is an islands located in the northeast of New Caledonia, sandwiched between Vanuatu and Fiji. In here I shortly leave the topic to explain that Vanuatu was originally called the New Hebrides Islands before independence in 1980, the archipelago was jointly administered by France and Britain since 1887. Although Wallis et Futuna are closed to the New Hebrides, it was under the administration of New Caledonia before 1961, and she first appeared on the map in about 1616. Before that,
there was evidence that people from the Lapita culture lived on these coral islands around the 7th century BC.
New Caledonia issued its local stamps in 1859 and did not have the formal official stamp until 1892, noted that the stamps could also be used in dependences of New Caledonia this period. The first stamps of Wallis et Futuna issued in 1920 and first real stamps issued in 1944, but anyway the stamps since 1920 still vaild for postage even after independence from New Caledonia into an overseas collective in 1961.
It is not estimated that less than 20.000 people of this French overseas collective now has only two post offices, one is Leava of Futuna, which is a large population village in the Kingdom of Sigavé; another one is located at Mata-Utu, the capital of Wallis and Futuna. Beside of these two post offices, Ono which is a southwestern village of Futuna also has postal service point until 2010’s year. Nevertheless it is not surprisingly most of the mails sent from Wallis et Futuna are datestamped at Mata-Utu Post Office, and the philatelic service centre is in the same place of this post office building.
In recent years, Wallis et Futuna issues new stamps every month, most of them are local customs and landscape themes, but the total number controlled 10 to 15 stamps per year, as there just with a population of 20.000 does not have many people who will use the postal serviceso, they do not issue definitive stamps for a long time, foreign employees or tourists in the local area are generally customers of postal service. However, after 3 times of trial, the philatelic service always takes a long time for them to process philatelic products. Mailing letters are also calculated on a monthly basis, their postal route has indicated that they will send the mailbags to New Caledonia first and then process them, which makes me calculate that they only handle about 30 to 40 registered mails every year.
2 of the 3 overseas collectives of France in this region are French Polynesia (Polynésie française), commonly known as Tahiti; and New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie) upgraded to a Sui generis collectivity on 2025, these are almost well-known of people; However, not all people known where is Wallis et Futuna. It is an islands located in the northeast of New Caledonia, sandwiched between Vanuatu and Fiji. In here I shortly leave the topic to explain that Vanuatu was originally called the New Hebrides Islands before independence in 1980, the archipelago was jointly administered by France and Britain since 1887. Although Wallis et Futuna are closed to the New Hebrides, it was under the administration of New Caledonia before 1961, and she first appeared on the map in about 1616. Before that,
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New Caledonia issued its local stamps in 1859 and did not have the formal official stamp until 1892, noted that the stamps could also be used in dependences of New Caledonia this period. The first stamps of Wallis et Futuna issued in 1920 and first real stamps issued in 1944, but anyway the stamps since 1920 still vaild for postage even after independence from New Caledonia into an overseas collective in 1961.
It is not estimated that less than 20.000 people of this French overseas collective now has only two post offices, one is Leava of Futuna, which is a large population village in the Kingdom of Sigavé; another one is located at Mata-Utu, the capital of Wallis and Futuna. Beside of these two post offices, Ono which is a southwestern village of Futuna also has postal service point until 2010’s year. Nevertheless it is not surprisingly most of the mails sent from Wallis et Futuna are datestamped at Mata-Utu Post Office, and the philatelic service centre is in the same place of this post office building.
In recent years, Wallis et Futuna issues new stamps every month, most of them are local customs and landscape themes, but the total number controlled 10 to 15 stamps per year, as there just with a population of 20.000 does not have many people who will use the postal serviceso, they do not issue definitive stamps for a long time, foreign employees or tourists in the local area are generally customers of postal service. However, after 3 times of trial, the philatelic service always takes a long time for them to process philatelic products. Mailing letters are also calculated on a monthly basis, their postal route has indicated that they will send the mailbags to New Caledonia first and then process them, which makes me calculate that they only handle about 30 to 40 registered mails every year.