Marudu or Marudo or Malloodoo

 

A couple of years ago, a friend and I made a brief visit to the Kudat area. It is definitely a sleepy area far from the hustle and bustle of Kota Kinabalu or Sandakan. Beneath it all, it was the location of a very interesting part of the fabric of the early history of North Borneo which I shall elaborate later. Stamps first!

This negative picture clearly shows that the spelling used was Marudo on this particular fiscal cancellation but it was thought to be "Marudu".

Green cancellation

Violet cancellation

I prefer colour inked fiscal cancellation because they look so much better. There was no post office at Marudu in the early days of chartered rule. A district office was present to deal with fiscal and legal matters as there were large plantations in the area. The nearest town was Kudat which is about 80km to the north and Jesselton was 120km to the south west. The earliest post office located here was called Bandau and started in the early 1960s. Around the early 1970s, the name was changed to Kota Marudu. There is a gap between between the dates of the post office postmarks between 1971 and 1976 which implies that there was no functioning post office between these dates. You can see my Bandau postmarks on this blog by clicking : https://mynorthborneostamps.blogspot.com/2014/06/bandau-cancellation-and-sembulan-cover.html

The history of this area dates back at least to the 15th century as it was present on maps of that period. The most famous personality of this area was Sharif Usman or Syarif Osman. Short writeup here:           https://thesabahsociety.com/event/the-fall-of-marudu-history-of-syarif-osman/                                         There is also a book for readers who are more interested.

Essentially, it is now believed that he was not a pirate at all but painted as such to further the imperialist designs of Rajah Brooke and his friends at the Colonial Office. The settlement which he presided would have been the largest in North Borneo at the time. He ruled over a large area in this northern part of Borneo and was autonomous enough to be considered the rightful ruler of an area separate from the sultanates of both Brunei and Sulu. 

Bandau cancellation and a Sembulan cover

They are probably not that common a cancellation from the early days of Sabah, Malaysia. Both these names are no longer present in current postmarks of Sabah

Quoting from the Sarawak Journal: "Bandau, a  town situated a few miles inland from the shores of Marudu Bay, on the north coast of Sabah. The name was changed to Kota Marudu in the early 1970's. A Post office, opening date unknown at present."
The initial cancellation was a 2nd Australian type cancellation. Latest date seen (LDS) was 3 Sept. 1963. The subsequent cancellation as shown above was with the change in name from North Borneo to Sabah. This was a Type A cancellation with a EDS of 23 DEC 1964 and a  LDS of 19 OCT 1971.

Though faint, we have here a full Sembulan KK star cancel with a date of 8 JU 73 on a stampless Government Service envelope from the assistant director of  the department of Trade and Industries to researchers in the forestry department in Sandakan.
Sembulam is situated about 5 km to the south west from the centre of KK. The post office opened on 9 April 1973. The above so called skeletal came in 3 variations and then followed by another 3 from after 1980 without the letters for "KK". Sembulan PO was re-named Rumah Persekutuan KK on 1 July 1989.

A long misplaced biscuit tin of stamps and Sabah postmarks of 1971

Recently, I found my long "lost" biscuit tin of stamps that I collected in my teens. In it are mostly stamps cut from envelopes by my sister who was working in the local forestry department in Sandakan. It is a treasure trove of postmarks of 1971. It is not fully comprehensive but does contain some fairly uncommon postmarks.

The postmarks shown here in consecutive order are Tambunan, Tuaran, Membakut, Bandau, Tenom, Kota Belud, Ranau, Tamparuli, Lahad Datu, Railway TPO 1, Beaufort, Papar, Tanjong Aru, Keningau, Semporna and Tawau. The common ones like Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Labuan and Kudat are not shown. Tambunan and Membakut are the most difficult ones here I think.

Kunak postmarks could not be that common and this is a page full of them including some nice multiples. It is situated on the south eastern coast on the road between between Tawau and Lahad Datu on its way to Sandakan. The area was previously known as Mostyn. Kunak had a thriving local timber extraction industry in those days which resulted in frequent correspondence with the main forestry office which was in Sandakan. In the early 1970s, it was mainly a timber camp and a few shops. Nowadays there is hardly any forest there after been overwhelmed by the oil palm plantations. There is also cocoa which the Mostyn Estate was known for together with hemp. Hemp cultivation is probably not current but it was depicted on the 4c purple stamps of 1950 and 1954. The area is also known for its thriving fishing industry. 

Among the many hundreds of stamps in the tin, there were some which I set aside years ago. They include these colour variations which are not classify as far as I know. 1971 was a transitional year from the much better printed orchid issue to that of the butterflies on glossy paper. It is a nightmare trying to find a good postmark on the butterfly issue as the ink did not stick well. It tended to be faint or smudged. And the postmarks were changed in the major towns to a smaller and more mean less attractive version as seen above on the 6c stamps.

Not many of these flimsy registered receipts survive in the damp hot conditions of the far east, I think. They are collectible. These two show the transit from English to Malay on official stationary. You can see my KK Airport post office receipt here.

There were only a few North Borneo stamps in this tin but this pair of 1954 10c has the "extra chimney" variety on the upper stamp which is present once on a sheet of 100 at the top of the right hand corner ie R1/10. The postdate of 26 NOV 1957 implies that this variety is also present in later printings of this stamp. We know it was originally in the first printing because I have 2 first day covers with this variety. 

Update

I might as well include the very uncommon Kuala Penyu cancellation. It is shown here with the cancels from Ranua and Kota Belud. They were all from 1964 when the Sabah Malaysia cancellations were first used in July.

More fiscal cancellations

I think this is the fiscal cancellation for E E Abrahamson, a company formed in 1886, mainly to exploit the timber resources around the Sandakan Bay with a depot on Copuan Island. This is a late use of this 1883 2c Transfer B adhesive.

E E Abrahamson was taken over in 1888 by The China Borneo Co Ltd in 1888. This is the likely fiscal cancellation. It is very similar to the one to E E Abrahamson which was quite logical. The presence of the bar cancellation probably meant that the bar cancellation was used fiscally as well in the absence of a suitable fiscal canceller. The cancellation was dated NOV 89.

Another one from the China Borneo Co Ltd with a clearer part date of cancellation also for NOV 90.

This is a very uncommon fiscal cancellation from H Broese Van Groenou which is not listed anywhere. He was the owner and manager of the Victoria coffee plantation of 20 acres near Kudat around 1895. He was also in charge of the lottery at the Marudu Turf Club and the club course at Bandau Estate where he owned a series of racing ponies called Bluntey, Cyclops and Totalisator. He worked as a licensed auctioneer as well and was appointed Kudat shipping agent for German Norddeutscher LLoyd Line (NDL) in 1904. In January of the same year, he married a Miss Van Vliet whose father was the doctor on the Batu Puteh Estate. He subsequently also planted rubber and then coconut. 

Yet another unlisted fiscal cancellation and this is for the (N BORNE)O EXPORT (DEPART)MENT.?

This is also an unlisted fiscal cancellation for HARRISONS & CROSFIELD. H&C brought out The China Borneo Co Ltd in 1919.

Early Sabah Postal History

I am quite interested in postal history during the transitional period when North Borneo joined Malaysia and became Sabah. It has been written that when North Borneo became part of the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, its name was changed to Sabah. But the state annual legislative annual report for 1963 stated that the the name was changed on independence on 31 August 1963.  But it evidently took some time for the postal system to catch up.

The name Sabah was in use before Europeans arrived and was probably derived from an old Brunei Malay word implying "upstream of the river". This applied to the western part of the state and we have no idea how the Suluks refer to the eastern part of the country in the old days.

Kudat Cachet

Only almost a year later in June 1964 was the name Sabah used officially on formerly North Borneo mail. But there was some delay with the arrival of the cancellers as well as stamps of the 1961 issue overprinted with the new name. So temporary cachet cancellers for the various post offices were issued.  But they were used for the month of June only in 1964 and so are fairly uncommon especially for the little known post offices.

The triple ring cachet used would be similar for all the post offices but there is somehow a slight difference with the one used at Kudat. It has addition small lugs on either side of the inner ring as shown. This cancellation should be in violet but blue and black ones are reported.

The one shown here is probably from Tawau rather than Ranau, Bandau or Keningau. The cds used was an Australian type with North Borneo at the bottom.

This is a Jesselton cover with the same SABAH MALAYSIA cachet in violet. The Jesselton cds is not clear but it should read 25 JUN 64. On further reflection, I do wonder whether the various town post offices were issued with an individual stamper with the cachet. It was more likely that the cachet was applied as the letters past through the GPO at Jesselton. 

On the 1st of July 1964, the Sabah cancellers and overprinted stamps were in use at the various post offices but probably with slight delay at the smaller outpost offices. However, the previous North Borneo stamp issue was still valid for another 10 years. Anyway, we now have a situation where North Borneo stamps were cancelled with a Sabah Malaysia type cds.

The one shown here is from Labuan right at the beginning of this period in July 1964. Postal history with this combination of a North Borneo stamp or stamps with a Sabah Malaysia cancellation are not easy to find.

This is another similar item from Jesselton, also used in July 1964. This is official government correspondence and evidently, they are trying to use up stocks.

This is much later in 1967. So the unoverprinted stamps were valid for some years after joining the Federation of Malaysia. This cover is grotty but I still have to pay good money for it at the bourse while visiting the Singapore Stamp International exhibition in August last year.

When Sabah became part of Malaysia, Sabah stamps were valid in all the other states including Singapore and vice versa. Sabah stamps used in this way is often seen on philatelic covers but they are still unusual items. I showed a combination cover here previously. Sabah stamps used on covers and also on parcel post in Singapore were also shown previously.

Singapore and other Malaysian state stamps used in Sabah are very uncommon. Here we have on piece stamps from Tregganu and Singapore used at Jesselton with a Sabah cds. Even though Singapore left the federation on 9 August 1965, its stamps were still valid for use in Malaysia for another 2 years.
Update: Straits Times 30 January 1967 "The Deputy Prime Minister's office announced today that it had been mutually agreed between the Governments of Malaysia ans Singapore that the interchangeability ans sale of Malaysian and Singapore postage stamps will not be valid for postal purposes throughout the Republic. Such stamps will also cease to be on sale in Singapore."

During this period, still to be overprinted North Borneo stamps were eligible for use in Singapore even though not officially on sale at the post office counter in Singapore unlike the Sabah stamps. A North Borneo stamp used in Singapore can be regarded as rare.

This 4c 1961 issue has a Singapore Airport cancellation and was possibly sent by a traveler just arriving from Sabah. It is unlikely to be an arrival cds as the airport was not a receiving post office with no residential areas nearby. I only wish the date was more discernible but it was probably 15JUL64.

Update 15/10/2016
This is probably as good as it gets with this clear date of 16 MAR64. I am fairly sure this was rare usage in Singapore rather than a transit cancel.