Incoming covers to Linkungan Estate near Beaufort North Borneo

Linkungan Estate, named after a local river, is on the main road about half way between Beaufort and Sipitang near to Weston. A few years ago, I probably passed it by on our way from Beaufort to Tenom via Sipitang in an effort to catch the train going back through the Padas Gorge.
It was likely a small estate as little is written about it. In 1887 the prospect of growing tobacco in this area was raised but nothing happened. In 1900, there was interest in growing rubber on a small scale. But it was not until March 1910 that a Dutch owned rubber estate was opened as part of the rubber boom pre WW1. The railway line from Weston passed by Linkungan facilitating the transport of produce from this area.

It is still in existence and probably much of the acreage has since been converted to grow oil palm. Any other information from readers would be much appreciated.

Ch. Boom was only mentioned in passing in the BNB Herald as was the rest of the expatriates working there. He was most likely to be of Dutch origin. This cover was sent in 1917 from Leiden in Holland. The censor label is the same as the one used in GB. It was quite probably that this cover went through one of the many censor offices in GB but it is difficult to confirm without a GB backstamp. The Straits labels are different. The other possibility was that these labels were sent to North Borneo and used there. This situation is so uncommon even learned members of our specialist society were not in agreement when I showed it at our Spring meeting. But we do know of almost exactly the same cover sent a year previously and this has a very rare and probably unique North Borneo hand stamp censor cachet.

Lady luck is certainly with me. I got these 2 covers at our auction without much competition. Okay, these two are postwar but they still make a very nice group. The images are self explanatory. Note the cover from Tong Hing, it probably contained a bill or a list of groceries. I like going in there whenever I stay on Gaya Street in Kota Kinabalu. It is an European type supermarket with a good cafe.

This is a share certificate for the company incorporated on 1 June 1910. Each certificate would represent one share in the company.

This is the accompanying endorsement certificate and handstamped by the Rotherdam Bank in Amsterdam. The bottom half is the pattern on the back which looks like a bank note.

Also part of the certificate is a series of dividend vouchers. 

Some recent Labuan acquisitions

The stamps were bought recently from our society auction. Labuan prewar photos are really not that common. These were supposed to be taken in 1935, probably by an expatriate.

The Labuan K1 was recorded as used between 1864 and 1882. The very earliest ones were in black as shown by a famous front piece with the cancellations on Hong Kong stamps. Then they were mostly in red like this one and then the ink used was changed back to black as the red ink was not very clear. I have another 2 in red which is much better than this one and would be shown at a later date.

The interesting thing about K1 was that it was in use for 15 years before the first adhesives for Labuan appeared in 1879. During that time, it was used on Indian, Straits, Hong Kong and possibly Ceylon stamps. But examples so far are very rare. So happy hunting!

This is shown because it has a Labuan D9 transit cancellation. The Brunei temporary cancel D6 shown here is one of the rarest of Brunei postmarks and was used for a year between Feb 1927 and Jan 1928. So far no cover is recorded but I do have it on a large piece.

These are Labuan photos taken in 1935. The top showed an attractive scene by the sea. The middle one was the government offices and the bottom item showing some shops in Labuan.

Brunei paquebot cover

The Sarawak Specialists' Society Spring meeting at Tiverton in Devon took place last weekend. There were 20 of us, some with wives. I am very please with the following item which was obtained at our auction for a very reasonable price. The amount of exceptional material that was displayed at our meeting was astounding. I will show a few other items that I obtained from the auction in the future.

Although it is likely philatelic, it is nonetheless a quite difficult to find. The box handstamp PAQUEBOT POSTED AT SEA was recorded as in use between 16.10.75 to 13.11.76 which is about a year. Proud probably obtained the latest date from this cover. He is of course one of our members and had had help in those early days compiling the dates and information. 

So it was posted on board ship while it was sailing in Hong Kong territorial waters or more likely it was posted on board a HK registered ship nearing Brunei. The HK stamps are valid in either case. Then it was sent by air mail on arriving at the Brunei post office back to HK.

I thought I would share this one as well. There is nothing exceptional about this cover but to me it is attractively constructed and would definitely fit the thematic for GREEN, green envelope and green stamp to a Miss Green! It was an air mail carried by the Imperial Airways at the prevailing rate of 25c per half ounce in 1937. This is probably the most attractive of the Jesselton cds cancellations.  

A card and its journey

This is a really interesting postal stationary card which originated from Kudat. There are a number of markings. It tells a complicated delivery journey and well worth the 6c paid even though the prevailing rate was reduced to 3c from 1 September 1895.

The S S Kedah of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen Company on its way from Lahat Dato to Singapore went via Sandakan, Kudat and Labuan. At Singapore, the card was efficiently picked up by the Netherlands Indies Postal Agency. The card was then carried by the KPM shipping line in stages to its final destination of  Bezoeki near Surabaya. A more detailed account of this item of postal history was published in the quarterly Sarawak Journal about 2 years ago