Maurice M. Witts, (1877-1966) an Australian who fought in the Boer War, went to the New Hebrides as a settler in 1904 after a brief sojourn in Fiji. With two cousins, Theo and Arthur Thomas, he planted coconuts in the Hog Harbour area of Espiritu Santo. He returned to Australia about 1913 and lived in the Moss Vale district until his death.
The diary gives an account of the life of a copra planter in a remote part of the New Hebrides, and contains numerous observations on the natives of the Hog Harbour area. See also PMB 8 for a later diary by Witts for the year 1911.
Jane Hyde Molen was the wife of a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who accompanied her husband, Simpson Molen, on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. They were stationed at Laie, Oahu.
The diary gives a day-by-day account of Jane's life from her departure from Salt Lake City to 12 February 1877, her birthday, which was spent at Laie.
Lina Jones (1890- ) was a school teacher at the Methodist mission, Munda, New Georgia, Solomon Islands, from 1924 to 1949. Her diaries have been filmed as PMB 594 - 599.
The diaries relate to her work at Munda. Diary 1924 - 1926. See also PMB 713-715 for Jones' correspondence, 1924-1942
A collection of 58 photographs taken by Reverend Conrad George Stallan, who was stationed on Malekula in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) from 1940-1946. Supported by the John G Paton Mission Fund, Rev Stallan was based in Wintua, South West Bay. Stallan was a keen photographer. He maintained a dark room to develop and print his photographs in both Malekula and Georgetown, British Guiana, where he was stationed in 1955-1961.
Peter Parfitt was born in England, the son of Captain William Parfitt, a commander of the P & O Company. In January 1865, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Bank of New Zealand in London. In 1867, he was posted to the Auckland office of his bank as chief clerk, and five years later he was promoted to pro-accountant of the bank in Melbourne. In November 1882, he married Hattie Lord, whose mother was a member of the Colgate toothpaste family. On 4 September 1883, Parfitt, accompanied by his wife, sailed from Melbourne to Sydney to take up an appointment as manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Levuka, Fiji.
The diary covers Parfitt's three years in the Pacific as manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Levuka, Fiji.
For details see PMB Doc 11. According to P. Oreilly, issues 1396-1397, dated between 23 June and 30 June 1866, are entitled Journal Officiel de la Nouvelle Caledonie.
