Registered Empire Mail (26 k)		Book tag mail label (20 k)

Courtesy of John Cooper

This parcel wrapper is the only known surviving example of the commercial use of 1/- stamp from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. It was sent to Mr. Albert Ellis (see below), the Phosphate Commissioner for New Zealand. Note the rubber registration of Ocean Island in the top left hand corner. Postal rates in 1935: Registration rate 3d.     Printed paper rate ½d/oz. It is estimated that the book weighed 4lb, 5oz. Albert Fuller Ellis was born Queensland, Australia in 1869. During his work for Arundel & Co, a trading company, he discovered enormous deposits of rock phosphate on Ocean Island (modern day Kiribati). Following World War One  Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand established the British Phosphate Commissioners to run the phosphate industry in the Pacific. In 1920 Ellis was appointed the New Zealand Phosphate Commissioner, a position he held until his death in 1951. For his contributions to the phosphate industry and New Zealand Agriculture, in 1927 Ellis became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical society, London, was appointed CMG in 1928 and knighted in 1938. Ellis produced a large number of publications including "Ocean Island & Nauru:their story" in 1935. One would like to speculate that this parcel may have contained this book and it was mailed to Ellis to have it autographed.

Courtesy of John Cooper
	John Cooper provided me scans of this interesting item. It shows the correct postage, 45c, being applied to a book label tag. Local Postal Book rates in Ceylon:-  9c/2 ounces with a minimum rate of 36c. Thus, the book/s must have weighed between 8 to 10 ounces.