The Medical Expedition to Easter Island was sponsored by the World Health Organization and the Canadian Government. Its purpose was to study the relative roles of environment and heredity in the Island's isolated population before an international airport was completed there in 1967. It also carried out pilot studies for the human adaptability section of the International Biological Program. The expedition reached Easter Island on 13 December 1964 and departed on 10 February 1965. For a popular account of the expedition see Helen Evans Reid, 'A World Away: A Canadian Adventure on Easter Island', Toronto, 1965.

The material has been filmed as PMB 532 to 536 inclusive.

Detailed medical records of all Easter Islanders living on the island at the time of the expedition's visit. The records include a photograph of each islander, his/her father's name, mother's name and other vital statistics. A list of the islanders examined, with the serial numbers assigned to them, appears on pp.183-222 of Georges L. Nogrady, ed., Microbiology of Easter Island, vol. 1, Montreal, 1974. The serial numbers are given for each reel of film. On this reel - Serial Numbers 00101 - 04108.

A monthly magazine published by the Methodist Mission (and more recently, the United Church), Rabaul, in the Kuonua or Tinota Tuno language. It first appeared in February 1909.

Reel 1: 1909 - 1923 (with index 1909-20 compiled 1974)<BR>Reel 2: 1924-1935<BR>Reel 3: 1936 - 1952<BR>Reel 4: 1953 - 1965<BR>Reel 5: 1966-1973<BR>Some issues for the years, 1911, 1928-31, 1933-34, 1936, 1938-49, 1961 and 1962 were not available for microfilming.

Independent Society established in 1963 with initial New Zealand Government support.

1. Shipping Notes compiled by W.G. Coppell, 1962-67, nos. 1-149 (MS 72). Typescript research notes consisting of extracts from various primary and secondary sources referring to ships which have visited the Cook Islands.
2. A.B. Donald and Co. Cook Islands Shipping Register, May 1949 to November 1970.
3. Narrative of Charles James Ward (born 1856, died 1933) of Rarotonga, prepared by G.H. Davis, Postmaster, 1933 - typescript, 11 pages (MS 16). Ward first visited Rarotonga in 1881. He later settled there, working initially as a skipper of island schooners and later as a storekeeper.
4. Correspondence of William McBirney (born c.1871, died 1956), 1947-55, relating to the introduction of plants to the Cook Islands (MS 15).

Please see entry for PMB 1065

1. Maori Culture, Rakahanga Island (MS 29). Records of surviving linguistic usages collected in 1956. Given by Apolo Lameka, written by David Alepha, translated by Nooroa Kairenga. (6pp, typescript)
2. Various Acts of the Rarotonga Council, 1893, 1895 (MS 30). Consists of mss drafts and printed versions of Acts in both English and Rarotongan. Includes holograph letter from J.K. Hutchin to F.J. Moss, British Resident, Rarotonga, 26 August 1897 relating to education.
3. English translation of Maretu (MS 28), the story of a London Missionary Society pastor who died in 1880. (n.d., 30 pp, typescript)4. Correspondence of Lionel H. Trenn, Registrar of the Cook Islands, regarding the design of the national flag, 1958 (MS 26). Mss and typescript, in English and Rarotongan.
4. Inventory of the F.J. Moss Papers housed in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington (MS 38). (12 pp, typescript)
5. Death notice for Charles W. Banks, 21.3.1915 at Avarua as published in Torea Katarika, no. 15, April 1915 (MS 36).
6. Folklore tales of the Cook Islands (MS 49). Collected, edited and versified by W. McBirney. (n.d., 135 pp, typescript)
7. Holmes, Susan. Report on Nutrition Survey in the Cook Islands, 1954 (MS 11). (36 pp, typescript)
8. Rules of the Rarotongan Lawn Tennis Club, 1921-22; Proofs of Cook Islands Administration, printed for the Mercants and Planters of the Cook Islands, Auckland, 1920; Typescript notes on the Rarotongan language, author unknown, (MS 78).
9. Correspondence of George Fowlds, 1907-1911.
10. Transcript extracts of London Missionary Society correspondence, 1828-1926, assembled by Resident Commissioner Platts. (typescript)
11. Laws of Aitutaki, 1847 (10 pp) and Blue Laws of Rarotonga, 1879. Printed in Rarotongan. (MS 1)
12. Knight, Mark A. (Otago University), Mangaia: a case study of process and adaptation, 1977 (MS 6). (18 pp, typescript)
13. Savage, Stephen, Iro-Nui-O-Mata (undated holograph mss).

Uncatalogued manuscripts held in the archives and library at the Evech‚ in Papeete, including the following compilations by P. Amerigo Cools: <I>D‚buts de la Mission Catholique … Tahiti, 1841-1842: extraits du journal en Aph‚m‚rides du P. Satutnin Fournier; FrŠre Martin Darque, missionnaire des sacr‚s-coeurs [1816-1863]: documentation; L'Evˆch‚ de Papeete et les FrŠres Bƒtisseurs; Le PŠre Germain Fierens et la conversion de Napuka; La lettre du P. Albert Montiton ss.cc. sur les traditions et coutumes de Paumotous; La Mission Catholiques de L'Ile de Pƒques: rapport de Mgr Tepano Jaussen sur la destruction de la mission; les huit lettres du P. Gaspar Zuhmbohm.</I><BR>Together with a history of the Picpus Order in Polynesia, <I>Les Picpusiens en Ployn‚sie</I>, probably by P. Venance Prat, published as four separate pamphlets between 1964 and 1968; Jean Charlot (comp.), <I>Journal de D‚sir‚ Louis Maigret, premiŠre partie Les Gambier, 1834 … 1840</I>; P. Maurice Desmedt ss cc, <I>P. Clair Fouqu‚ ss.cc. et la conversion de l'archipel Tuamotu; Statistiques - marriages, baptˆmes, communions pascales, 1841-1880</I>; L'abb‚ Tryphon Mama Taira Putairi, <I>E atoga Magareva mei te ao eteni roa</I>. Cahier 10; Josepha Teuho a Tepage, <I>Legends and History from the Tuamotus</I>, transcribed (in Tuamotu) by Ignace Estall, with other related material.<P><B>See reel lists for further information</B>

See notes for PMB 1065 and PMB 1067

1. Tapere Titikaveka Kauare, a handwritten manuscript in Rarotongan. Consists of journal-type entries dated, 1891, 1903-1909. Some of the entries relate to Tetika Mata'iapo's adoption/fostering of Kautai. Author unknown.<BR>2. Pu Apii Sabati Titikaveka, a handwritten manuscript in Rarotongan. Records the activities of the London Missionary Society Sunday School at Titikaveka, 1939-1947. Included in the mss are some financial accounts listing the names of particular individuals. Author unknown.<BR>3. Mataiti Titikaveka, a handwritten manuscript in Rarotongan. Records the activities of the London Missionary Society Church at Titikaveka. Written in a variety of hands, the mss gives a range of dates between 1895 and 1973, with a large number of journal type entries and financial accounts dated 1913-17.<BR>4. Cash book of Factorei Societe Commerciale at Avatiu, 1882-84 (MS 53).<BR>5. Diary of Charles Banks, Jan.-August 1903 (MS 51). See also PMB 1067-8 and PMB 1070.

See notes for PMB 1065 and PMB 1067.

1. Diary of Charles Banks, Sept.-Dec. 1903 (continuation of PMB 1069).
2. Diaries of Robert Wigmore, owner of the Papua Plantation at Titikaveka, 1918, 1920, 1923, 1925 and 1926 (MS 52).
3. Te Akatauira/Guiding Star, 1939. Printed news-sheet in Rarotongan and English. Edited by A.R. Henry.

The Reverend Richard Heath Rickard (1858-1939) was a pioneer missionary in New Britain. He published the first New Britain dictionary and grammar in 1889.

Some of the documents in this collection relate only indirectly to the Rev. R.H. Rickard. The documents comprise:

1. A copy of a letter dated May 1, 1882, from Rickard to the Wesleyan Church offering his services as a missionary in New Britain.
2. A fragment of a diary kept by Rickard's wife in the Duke of York Islands from May 19, 1883, to September 24, 1883.
3. Four letters from Mrs C. Phebe Parkinson to Mrs Rickard, written between 1898 and 1939 from various places in the New Guinea Islands. One of the letters, of 1935, was written from the little-known Tingwon Islands, off the western tip of New Hanover, and is one of the fullest descriptions known of those islands. (Mrs Parkinson became a friend of the Rickards during their early years in New Britain. For an outline of her career, see the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, November, 1968:4)

James Lyle Young (1849-1929) was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and went to Australia with his parents in the mid-1850's. After working in Australia as a station hand, Young, in 1870, went to Fiji where he was associated with a cotton-planting venture at Taveuni. In 1875, he left Fiji on a trading voyage to Samoa, and from May, 1876, to October, 1881, he worked as a trader in the Marshall, Mariana and Caroline Islands. In 1882, Young went to Tahiti to become manager of the Papeete trading store of Andrew Crawford & Co., of San Francisco. In 1888, he went into business in Tahiti on his own account. He was closely associated with the Pacific Islands for the rest of his life, as managing director of S.R. Maxwell & Co., of Tahiti, and owner of Henderson and Macfarlane Ltd., of Auckland. He became recognised as an authority on the life and culture of the region.

Letters, notebooks, memoranda, articles, etc. dealing with Young's career and interests from 1878 to the year of his death. Includes a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on 'The Trouble in Samoa' (31/3/1899), a paper on German expansion in the Pacific (1908), correspondence on the Pitcairn Islanders between Young and the British Consulate in Tahiti (1911-13) and an account by Young of his family's history and his own career (1919, c.1924). Some letters written in Micronesia as well as materials from French Polynesia. A full list of other items in the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, Dec. 1968:5, p.12 and Jan. 1969:6, pp.10-11. See also PMB 21 and 22.
See Finding aids for details.

Fison (1832-1907) a university-educated man, with a keen interest in anthropology, was born in Suffolk, England. He migrated to Australia in 1856, joined the Methodist Church, and went to Fiji as a Wesleyan missionary in 1864. He remained in Fiji until 1884, when he returned to Australia and became editor of the Spectator, a Melbourne church paper.

Copies of letters, notes on Fiji customs and personalities, sketches of life in Fiji, and an early draft of Fison's book 'Tales of Old Fiji' (London, 1907). The wording of some of the tales, as recorded in these papers, has been much worked over and occasionally differs in its final form from that in the published versions.