Tuesday 22 December 2015

FRENCH POLYNESIA - Polynésie française / Pōrīnetia Farāni

French Polynesia (French: Polynésie française , Tahitian: Pōrīnetia Farāni), officially the Collectivity of French Polynesia, is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic and its sole overseas country. It is composed of 118 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over an expanse of more than 2,000 kilometres.

French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands: the Society Islands archipelago, composed of the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands; the Tuamotu Archipelago; the Gambier Islands; the Marquesas Islands; and the Austral Islands. Among its 118 islands and atolls, 67 are inhabited. Tahiti, which is located within the Society Islands, is the most populous island, having close to 69% of the population of French Polynesia as of 2017. Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007.

Following the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers visited the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions. Traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate they called Établissements français d'Océanie (EFO) (French Establishments/Settlements of Oceania). In 1946, the EFO became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFO were renamed French Polynesia. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific Community, a regional development organization. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic under the constitutional revision of article 74, and later gained, with law 2004-192 of 27 February 2004, an administrative autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as an overseas country. Aside from Tahiti, some other important atolls, islands, and island groups in French Polynesia are: Ahē, Bora Bora, Hiva 'Oa, Huahine, Mai'ao, Maupiti, Meheti'a, Mo'orea, Nuku Hiva, Raiatea, Taha'a, Tetiaroa, Tupua'i and Tūpai.

French Polynesia, formerly known as the French Oceania. The first postage stamps used in French Polynesia were the general stamps of the French Colonies from 1862. In 1882 a shortage of 25c stamps necessitated a surcharge on less-used values. Some of the surcharges also included the name "TAHITI". Stamps inscribed "Établissements de l’Oceanie" (French Settlements in Oceania) became available in 1892 with the Navigation and Commerce issue. In 1893, two kinds of overprint were applied to the remaining stocks of regular and postage due French Colonies stamps; one type was a slanted overprint reading "TAHITI" and the other was a horizontal "1893 / TAHITI". For some values of stamps, very few were left to be overprinted, and genuine overprints are quite rare.
 French Polynesia cover with Birds stamps.
Registered airmail cover from French Polynesia ! I rarely seen the barcode label affixed on the registered mail, usually it is a printed paper with address and barcode together.

The covers posted from Tahiti, the main island of French Polynesia on Nov 26,2015. And it reached  on December 22,2015.

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