Royal Reels: Gambling

Missionaries and Religion

SACRED HEART MISSION, THURSDAY ISLAND: FATHER FERDINAND HARTZER

The Queensland Postcard, Australia has a printed blue ‘POSTAGE/ TWO PENCE’ stamp of Queensland which is postmarked with an unframed postmark of THURSDAY ISLAND/ ( )/ 91/ QUEENSLAND. It is addressed to Dr. Sicard, Alby (sic) France, Europe and there is a black double ringed reception postmark of ‘ALBI’ as well as a double ringed red, presumed transit postmark (Figure 1). The reverse message is headed ‘Thursday Island, 2 Janvier

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ROBERT BEAR, PUBLISHER/IMPORTER & REV. DELAPORTE, NAURU MISSION

Five covers, dated 1901-1910 were addressed to ‘Sir’ Robert Bear at 16 Park Street, Sydney from British New Guinea and from Nauru. The first is a printed cover with a vertical pair of the 1d carmine with black centre British New Guinea stamps, postmarked with the ten bar obliterator (as well as blue crayon strokes) and there is an unframed WOODLARKS/ 1901/ B.N.G. cancel nearby. The reverse (not seen) showed

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REV. JAMES EGAN MOULTON, MISSIONARY, TONGAN BIBLE TRANSLATOR

wo covers were sent to the Rev. J. Egan Moulton at Tupou College (both spelt incorrectly as Tubou), in the capital city of Nuku’Alofa, Tonga. The first had a pair of the red 1d N.S.W. ‘Shield’ stamps cancelled with the barred numeral obliterator of ‘1204′ and in addition the origin was confirmed by a cds of ENMORE/ NO 17/ 1897/ N.S.W (Type 1D (i) 1896-1906). In addition there was a

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REV. ALEXANDRE BATTISTE, EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PORT-AU- PRINCE, HAITI

The registered envelope of Victoria is addressed to Rev. A. Battiste, Port-au-Prince, Hayti, West Indies. The boxed red printed ‘REGISTERED’ has been covered over by a red Registration Label of the ‘United States of America/ NEW YORK, N.Y. There is a handstamp applied in Australia of a black large ‘R’ in a circle and the pair of blue 2½d stamps of Victoria are cancelled with an unframed ELIZABETH STREET NORTH/

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REV. GEORGE HUNN NOBBS, NORFOLK ISLAND

This 1868 stampless cover is addressed to Revd G.H. Nobbs, Norfolk Island Australia, has a LOMBARD-STREET/ F.O./ OC 30/ 68/ PAID cds in red and has a large faint manuscript ‘6’ rating as well as manuscripts ‘Via Southampton’ across the top, ‘ans(wered) to Mr. Glennie, July 27th 1869’ on the left side and ‘Consignee’s letter/ (indecipherable)’ on the right. The vendor states that there is a colorless embossing on the

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W.H. BADDELEY, LORD BISHOP of MELANESIA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, WW 2

The Air Mail letter was sent with the orange ½d ‘Kangaroo’ and the purple 5d ‘Merino sheep’ stamps cancelled with a wavy lines roller postmark of ADELAIDE/ 430AM/ 11 MCH/ 1942/ SOUTH AUST. It was handstamped with a purple 3/ PASSED BY CENSOR and it was addressed to The Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Melanesia, Box 3416 R, G.P.O. Sydney and the address was crossed out with a red

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REV. J. FLIERL, SENIOR MISSIONARY, NEW GUINEA & J. FERGUSON, JUDGE

The cover has a manuscript ‘From Senior Missionary Joh. Flierl, Finschafen New Guinea, via Rabaul and was addressed to Mr. J.A. Ferguson, University Chambers, 167 Phillip Str., Sydney, N.S.W., Australia. It has 3 violet handstamps, with 2 straight line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’ as well as an oval ‘CENSORED BY/ DISTRICT OFFICER/ WM OGILVY’ cachet. There are 5 green ½d ‘Roo on Map of Australia’ stamps, a single and block of

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WILLIAM MEIRION EVANS, WELSH WESLYAN MINISTER, EDITOR & MINER

The first cover was addressed To the Revd W.M. Evans, The Welsh Church, Latrobe St Melbourne and the lilac ‘TWO PENCE’ stamp of Victoria was postmarked with the first duplex WARRNAMBOOL/ JA 8/ 76/ VICTORIA, and the stamp was obliterated with the barred numeral ‘10′ . The addressee wrote up the L.H.S. the date of its reception by ‘Jenkin Jenkins 10/1/76′ . The reverse was not seen (Figure 1). The second

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ADAM TURNBULL, SURGEON, MINISTER, LANDOWNER, & PUBLIC SERVANT

This cover couples Launceston Merchant ‘Prince’, William Johnstone and the Reverend Doctor Adam Turnbull of Campbell Town in 1874, a year before Turnbull retired from the Presbyterian ministry to one of his several properties, Winton in Campbelltown, Tasmania. Turnbull was the sender of the letter (as evidenced by the manuscript penned by Johnstone at the left hand border of the cover, dated ‘11 Jany1876′, the year an error?). The green

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BEATRICE ISABEL HASSALL, AUSTRALIAN MISSIONARY in PALESTINE

The Air Mail cover has two KGV Head stamps, the 2d red and 4d olive, as well as a pair of the dull claret Hermes 1 shilling 6 pence stamps, for a total postage of 3 shillings 6 pence. They are all cancelled with the 3 AIR MAIL 3/ 5-P21 DE 36/ SYDNEY N.S.W. postmark. The cover is addressed to Miss Beatrice I. Hassall, Church Missionary Society, Jerusalem, Palestine, and

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