Straits Settlements King Edward Vll registration envelopes used at Labuan

Somehow during my armchair exploration of the philatelic universe, I came across these two covers and was able to acquire them without much resistance. The Labuan crowns were the very last stamps that were issued where the territory existed as a separate entity. The British North Borneo Company were the administrators on behalf of the British Crown between 1890 and 1904. A significant amount of the income of the island was from the sale of stamps for philatelic purposes. The North Borneo derived Labuan stamps were probably getting quite tired by then, especially with the number of CTOs produced. A fresh design would generate renew interest and earn more stamp income. Were they expecting a bonanza? Despite countless numbers of CTOs on the crown issue of 1902-1903, there were more than enough for subsequent Straits and Brunei overprints.
With the incorporation of Labuan into the Straits Settlements, this set of stamps were overprinted. After been severed from North Borneo on 1 January 1904, Labuan reverted to the Crown. The internal affairs of the island were then administered by the Straits Settlements. The proclamation date to include Labuan as part of the Straits Settlements was made on 13 October 1906 but it was only on 1 January 1907 when the boundary of the Straits was officially extended to include Labuan. But strangely enough, the overprinted stamps was already in use by 24 December 1906.   

There is no mention of Straits Settlements KEVll registration envelopes in the index of The Malayan Philatelist  which is very surprising. There must be something somewhere in the journal. This is a size G envelope measuring 9.5x15.2cm. The other sizes recorded for the Straits registration envelopes are H 12.7x20.3cm, H2 10.2x22.9cm and K 15.2x29.2cm.
It has part of the December 1906 issue of the Labuan crowns overprinted Straits Settlements. The 1c and the 2c stamps are the most expensive used stamps of the set barred the errors. There are quite a few varieties with this set and one can not blame North Borneo solely for this sort of thing, whether it was incompetency or deliberation. 

This envelope is actually smaller despite what the scan shows. It measures 3x13.4cm or 3.25x5.25 inches. This would correspond to size F, the smallest of the standard British registration envelopes. This has the rest of the values of this set. It is difficult to know why the overprint for the 10c has a different font and setting.

Mervyn Skipper (1886-1958) and Labuan

I came across this personality recently which might be of interest to aficionados of Labuan. He was an artist, cartoonist, illustrator and painter who wrote some children books based on local folklore while he was working in Labuan in the 1920s for the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company (EEAC).

Mervyn Garnham Skipper was born in Adelaide. The Meeting Pool is a collection of children's tales based on the island of Daat which is part of the territory of Labuan. He was at Daat and while there, he started a collection of stories for the benefit of his young daughter in Australia. Some years ago in the Sarawak Journal, there was a wonderful article about the land deed of Daat on which were affixed high value revenue stamps including the Labuan overprinted North Borneo $25 stamp which are worth a substantial small fortune.

The White Man's Garden was a further collection of similar children stories based on traditional tales from Borneo.

Telegraph system of Labuan and North Borneo

It is logical how events and personalities are all interconnected. Mervyn Skipper was working for the telegraph cable company EEAC and reading around it, found details about the telegraph system of Labuan and North Borneo. In 1894 a cable was laid between Singapore and Hong Kong with a landing at Labuan. The laying of the 2002 nm cable was carried out by the ship CS Scotia.

CS Scotia built 1861 by R Napier & Co Glasgow

Cables were laid by:

12 April 1894       Singapore - Labuan

14 April 1894       Labuan - Mempakul/Menumbok, North Borneo

8 May 1894          Labuan - Hong Kong 

This old map from 1888 shows the island of Daat in between Labuan and Mempakul on the mainland of North Borneo. Mervyn Skipper was based at Daat. Was he involved in some repair or upgrading in the cable connecting North Borneo and Labuan and hence the outside world? 

When the cable between Singapore and Labuan was completed in 1894, BNBC paid for part of it by letting EEAC select 20,000 acres of land for use or resale. The total cost of the cable from Hong Kong to Singapore via Labuan was about £300,000 which is roughly £27m in today's money. 

Sipitang was the initial choice for the connection with Labuan but abandoned due to exposure to rough weather during monsoons. Mempakul was then selected and it is geographically closer as seen on the map. The 11 mile cable to Menumbok at the mouth of the river Klias was laid by 14 April 1894. 

A telegraph connection was subsequently planned from Sandakan to Menumbok. This is a very much more difficult and protracted affair, much of it across wild uncharted territory.  By December 1895, only 173 miles was completed but on 6 August 1896, the respective telegraphic lines from the west and east coasts were finally connected. The completion cost was £10,500. Local communication by this means was therefore made possible but it was not until 7 April 1897 when a reliable connection was made between Sandakan and Labuan which enabled onward transmission to Singapore and Hong Kong.