William Diaper was born in Ardleigh, England on 11 November 1820. His parents died when he was young and in 1937, at the age of 16, he left England for Hobart Town on board the Joshua Carroll, using the alias John Jackson. He spent the remainder of his life as a beachcomber, living in, and travelling around the islands of the Pacific Ocean and neighbouring countries.

Diaper (spelled Diapea in this manuscript), who came to be known as Cannibal Jack, filled 19 copybooks with accounts of his life. This manuscript is books 9, 16 and 17 only; the remaining books were burned after his death. These three books were given to the Rev James Hadfield by Diaper in Mare, Loyalty Islands (New Caledonia) in 1889. They describe his life and travels in Fiji, Fortuna and Tonga, covering the period 1843-1847. The manuscript was not considered appropriate for public consumption until 1928, when it was published by Faber and Gwyer of London, albeit with the omission of one passage from this the original manuscript.

In these pages, Diaper gives his accounts of fights and other close encounters, observations of various cultural practices, trade of beche de mer, tortoiseshell and other commodities, Tongan communities in Fiji, absconded sailors, the volcano at Tonualei, tensions between traditional and Christian beliefs, pig farming and court cases, amongst other stories and observations.

He refers to places such as Ovalau, Monta, New Caledonia, Wallis Island, Manila, China, India, Horne Islands, Fortuna, Vanuau Levu, Cikobia, the Macuaca coast, Neteva Bay, Naviu, Udu Point, Taviuni, Somosomo, Lekeba, Ogea, Wacewace, Vatoa or Turtle Island, Hapai Islands, Komo, Moce, Tonga or the Friendly Islands, Tofua, Kaau islands, Tugua, Lefuka, Vavao, Niafu, Tonualei, Utue, Fonualea and other places.

He mentions plantations managers Mr M (R. Estate) and Mr E (Deumbea Estate), missionary Rev J Hunt, Bonavidogo, Tue Macuaca and his widow, George Rodney Birt, Proctor, Sam the King, King of Lomaloma, Tuecakau, Cakobau, C. Pickering, Dr Lythe, Chief Lua, Vuetasau, Mr and Mrs Calvert, Ratu Finau, Captain Bligh, Ande Litia, missionary Paula, Komo, Mara (half-brother of Cakobau), Uluqalala, Josiah alias Lauji, missionary Mr Webb, King George alias Tupo or Tuekanokopulu, missionary Mr Raborne, Miss Lepone, Master Joele, Mr J. Williams, old Joe, Netane, Utue, Maata, missionary Mr Turner, Old John, American whaler Powel, Robert Stevens, Captain Dillon/Chevalier Dillon and others.

PMBPhoto 101 is a collection of 176 selected photographs of Fiji subjects taken over two weeks in August 2009. Friends living in Suva – Judith Robinson and Chris Gregory, Brij and Padma Lal and Ian and Valerie Campbell – organised several people to meet and places to visit on Viti Levu and Bau. The photos were selected from a collection of 414 photos. They complement the photos in PMBPhoto70 taken at the same time by Bill Gammage.
The subjects include places of Fiji historical and political interest such as Nukulau Island, and in Suva town, Parliament House, Government House, the Government buildings complex foundation stone, the list of Governors of Fiji 1874 to 1938 and 1938 to 1970, the Supreme Court of Fiji, buildings constructed in colonial times including the old picture theatre, the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Suva town market, the Grand Pacific Hotel, and Albert Park, and more recently the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption. A banner “We Need Rainbows Not Rambos” reflects the feelings of some people at the time. More contemporary subjects of general interest in Suva include a McDonalds fast food outlet, an artefact shop, the view across Nabukalou Creek, Pure Fiji cosmetics, and the University of the South Pacific.
Suva’s hinterland provided the following subjects: the Colo-I-Suva Forest Park and Quarry, and Nausori. Of historical and particular personal interest are the photos of the Methodist Church at Dilkusha and its attached kindergarten. Jan’s stepmother spent several months at the Dilkusha Methodist Mission after she left school in 1922. Other subjects include Takalana Resort with its lovo pit (earth oven), pineapple and other flowers and Moon Reef. For photos of dolphins see PMBPhoto70.
The Hindi wedding in Suva of Savita and Mahen is a major subject. It took place over an evening and three days, and was full of interest, colour and activity. The selection includes 50 photos.
Other major subjects are Bau, Bukuyu and Mt Tomanivi (Mt Victoria). There are 25 photos in the selection of Bau, where we were the guests of Ratu Jope Seniloli and his wife, Adi Seru Seniloli. The photos show some traditional customs as well as some of the sites of this historic island. Spending a night with Freddy and Tupou Gusulevu and family in rural Bukuyu in the Nausori Highlands was also enjoyable, and provided many subjects including kava and turmeric farming, as well as rural improvements such as local hydro electricity and football fields. The 27 photos in this selection include subjects seen on the way to and from Bukuyu including views from the Latamai Scenic View at the Tongan Hill Fort and the parabolic sand dunes at Sigatoka. Eleven photos are of subjects near Mt Tomanivi as well as the mountain itself, including Navai village and the Monasavu dam construction site.
Women are often the subject of these photographs. They are photographed working in shops, markets, as security guards, in their homes, and as participants in and guests at the wedding.

This collection of 54 photographs records a visit to Fiji in August 2009 by Bill Gammage. The visit was to see friends and look around. The photos were taken in Suva and around Viti Levu. PMBPhoto_101 complements these photos.
Subjects include Suva, Suva hinterland, Bau, Takalana Bay and Moon Reef, Tongan hill fort and views, Nausori Highlands and Bukuyu Village. The Sigatoka Sand Dunes and Mt Victoria (Mt Tomanivi) are also subjects.

Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon, first Baron Stanmore (1829-1912) was born in London and served from 1854 to 1857 as a member of the House of Commons. Gordon served as Governor of Trinidad (1866-1870), Mauritius (1871-1874), Fiji (1875-1880), New Zealand (1880-1882) and Ceylon (1883-1890). From 1877 to 1882 he also served as High Commissioner and Consul-General for the Western Pacific.

Fijian Pamphlets, Volume 1, 1877-1879, Items 1-13: pamphlets on the Polynesian Company’s land claims in Fiji; reports on the commercial and agricultural prospects of Fiji; Gordon’s report on the taxation system in Fiji; Wesleyan Missionary Notices; article from Fiji Times on the departure of Sir Arthur Gordon from Fiji; London Missionary Society report on its mission in New Guinea, et al.
Fijian Pamphlets, Volume 2, 1877-1882, Items 1-10: more pamphlets on Polynesian Co land claims; Church Acts of NSW; Constitution of Tonga; Enquiry into Tongan Mission Affairs; Island Voyage; Dayspring Annual report; extracts from The Aborigines’ Friend, et al.;
Fijian Pamphlets, Volume 3, 1878-1883, Items 1-9: Story of the ‘Little War’; Native Councils in Fiji; Fiji at the Sydney and Melbourne International Exhibitions; Gordon’s Aberdeen address on Fiji; Fiji trade report, et al.;
Fijian Pamphlets, Volume 4, 1870-1880, Items 1-18: constitution of the Fiji Federation of Chiefs; and other publication on colonisation, sovereignty, politics and commerce in Fiji.
Fijian Pamphlets, Volume 5, Fiji Ordinances 1875-1878.
<b>See Finding aids for details.</b>

Please see PMB 546 for full entry.

The dictionary is contained in 10 exercise books.<BR>See also PMB 546, 547 and 567

Father Neyret was born in France (Lyons) on 18 July 1904. He went to the Pacific as a Marist missionary in 1931 and has served in Fiji, the Solomons and New Caledonia. A two-volume study by him entitled Pirogues Oceaniennes was published in Paris in 1976/77.<BR>NOTE: Father Neyret's name has been given as 'Jean-Marie' on the microfilm.

The documents are:<BR>1. Elements of the grammar of Belep<BR>2. Catechism<BR>3. Hymns<BR>4. Gospel translations<BR>See also PMB 547, 548 and 567

'A Paradise of the Gods. Writings and Drawings of Handley Bathurst Sterndale’ (2020) is an unpublished digital edition edited by J.J. Overell. In 1870, Handley Bathurst Sterndale worked as a surveyor on the island of Upolu, Samoa, for the German trading company Goddefroy & Sohn. In this capacity, he made an expedition across Upolu, making notes and sketches about the journey as he went. In 1871, on Motu Kotawa on the islet of Pukapuka atoll in the Cook Islands, he worked these notes into the manuscript ‘Upolu; or, A Paradise of the Gods’, and worked his sketches into finished drawings. Some accounts are not his first hand observations and others are demonstrably wrong. Sterndale sought to have the manuscript published, but was unsuccessful in finding a publisher before his death in 1878. After his death, it was listed in a catalogue among the publications of Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington of London, but the manuscript never made it to print. It is now available as PMB MS 1442.

The original notebooks have since been lost, but the surviving manuscript and drawings have been passed down to Sterndale’s descendants. This collection brings together 73 of Sterndale's drawings of Samoa, Cook Islands and other islands of the Pacific. The images were digitised by photographer Rod Howe. The images are of scenes witnessed or imagined on his journey, including plants and animals, people, nature and village life.

Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon, first Baron Stanmore (1829-1912) was born in London and served from 1854 to 1857 as a member of the House of Commons. Gordon served as Governor of Trinidad (1866-1870), Mauritius (1871-1874), Fiji (1875-1880), New Zealand (1880-1882) and Ceylon (1883-1890). From 1877 to 1882 he also served as High Commissioner and Consul-General for the Western Pacific.

A collection of 33 pamphlets, bound in one volume, formed by Sir Arthur Gordon when Governor of Fiji and Western Pacific High Commissioner, consisting of parliamentary papers and printed correspondence relating to Western Pacific islands other than Fiji, including New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides. The pamphlets also include: reports on the cesssion of Rotuma, pearl shell fisheries in the Torres Strait, the labour trade, the Intercolonial Conference of 1881; papers relating to conflicts, kidnappings and murders in the islands involving the ships “Borealis”, “Sandfly”, “Aurora”, “Leslie”, “Winifred”, “Miranda”, “Isabelle”, “Cormorant”, together with reports by Commodore Wilson on murders on the coast of New Guinea; general reports on conditions and commerce in the islands by W. Seed and Sterndale; Capt. W.H. Marshall’s report on his observations of the Ellice, Gilbert, Marshall and Caroline Islands in the HMS “Emerald”, 1881.
<b>See Finding aids for details.</b>
See also PMB 1213 and 1215.

In June 1973, as Professor of Human Geography in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the ANU, Gerry Ward wrote W. F. Straatmans, a field researcher in Papua New Guinea, instructing him to carry out interviews with Danny Leahy and Jack Fox who were amongst the first Europeans in the Highlands of New Guinea. Pim Straatmans had had long personal relationships with both interviewees.
The interviewees recall pre-War and War-time conditions and tell stories regarding transport, airstrip construction, native labour, gold digging methods, sing sings in the Highlands, Edie Creek, Maprik, Bena Bena, Wewak and Sepik regions, including Danny Leahy's account of rescuing nuns and priests from Catholic mission stations on the Sepik during the War. They remark on some of Danny Leahy's photographs, recalling the deaths of Fr Mauschhauser and Br Eugene in the Chimbu, contact with Fr Van Baar, Fr Ross and Fr Schaefer, and the rivalry between the Catholic and Lutheran missions. They comment on the kiaps Robert Melrose and Jim Taylor and on the hanging of Ludy Schmidt in Rabaul.
In the transcript of a further interview with Chris Ashton of the ABC, Jack Fox, who had been in New Guinea with the Australian occupation forces in 1914, recalls the expedition and German resistance.

Transcripts of Pim Straatmans' interview with Jack Fox and Danny Leahy, November 1973, and Chris Ahton's interview with Jack Fox, also in 1973, together with related papers and a photograph of Jack Fox. See Finding aids for details.

This collection of photographs illustrates the life of Rev Isaac Neilson Whyte and Dr Mary Grace Whyte durng their service with the Australian Presbyterian Board of Missions in the New Hebrides, 1952-1957. With their children Michael, Robyn, Alistair and Peter, they were based in the village of Wintua in the South West Bay region of Malekula. Mary Grace and Neilson arrived in Wintua shortly after a hurricane had been through and destroyed much of the village infrastructure. In the years that followed, Wintua was rebuilt with the help of people from neighbouring villages, who helped to build a new church, mission house, district school and a small hospital. Rev Whyte was often away from Wintua, visiting other villages in his mission jurisdiction. He visited Big Nambas territory, which had in the previously been hostile to Europeans, and helped bring about a peace agreement between village leaders. Mary Grace practised medicine in Wintua and surrounding villages.

This collection of photographs depicts village and church life in South West Bay. It shows the reconstruction of the village, family photographs, Rev and Dr Whyte giving medical care and travel between villages by launch and canoe. There are also photos of a Big Nambas village and the Leviamp peace talks, as well as family photos taken on return to Australia.