For details see PMB Doc 101

Issues for 1910-11

For details see PMB Doc 101

Issues for 1912

For details see PMB Doc 101

Issues for 1919-20

Mr Ian Grabowsky, born in Finland in 1899, was actively associated with New Guinea aviation from 1931 to 1937 as a pilot and manager for Guinea Airways Ltd. Between 1962 and 1967, he compiled a history of civil aviation in New Guinea to the year 1935 for the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation (Australia). For further details of Grabowsky's career and his compilation, see Pacific Islands Monthly for February, 1968, p.14.

A detailed account of the development of civil aviation and the exploits of the early fliers in Papua New Guinea to 1935, drawing upon a wide range of published and unpublished material.
Reel 1: Introduction; Vol.1 - Chapter 1 The Discovery of Gold 1529-1925. Chapter 2 The Early Transport System (including a section on oil, administration patrols and recruitment of human transport). Chapters 3 and 4 Transport and the Goldfields 1926 (Chapter 4 includes A Wild Road Winds to Wau by Mrs Alice Allen Innes, 'mine hostess' at Salamau from 1927, recounting an incident recorded in her diary). Chapters 5 to 7 deal with Air Transport and the Goldfields from 1927 to 1929 respectively. Vol.2 - Chapters 7 to 9 cover air transport and the goldfields from 1930 to 1932 respectively. Vol.3 - Chapter 10 Great Discoveries of New Lands, New People, New Wealth, New Ventures and New Ambitions.
Reel 2: Vol.3 (cont.) Chapter 11 - 1934. Vol.4 - 1935.

Rev. Clarence T J Luxton (1907-1979) was sent to Buka in Bougainville in 1939 with his wife, Mavis, as part of the work of the New Zealand Methodist Overseas Mission. Shortly afterwards, he was evacuated from the island. In April 1945 he returned to Bougainville, working at Bilua, Vella Lavella, then Torokina. A skilled builder, he supervised the construction of the new Church in Buka in 1947 before withdrawing from the Mission as a result of poor health in 1949.

A tribute to Rev. C. Luxton, including : <BR>an index to his diary and the diary itself, 22 Apr-4 Oct 1945<BR>Rev. C. Luxton's letters to his mother, including a letter from Mavis Luxton to Mrs Luxton, Apr-Dec 1945<BR>correspondence between Rev. Luxton and Rev. George Carter, 1976<BR>Methodist Mission, Buka Area annual report and related papers, 1946 and 1947.
<P><B>See reel list for further details</B>

Pryke was one of three brothers - the others being Frank and James - who pioneered the search for gold in Papua New Guinea, beginning in 1896. (See Pacific Islands Monthly, August 1937, p.7, and Hank Nelson, Black, White and Gold: Goldmining in Papua New Guinea, 1878-1930, Canberra, 1976).

Papers relating to the search for and mining of gold in Papua New Guinea, some written from the field. They are part of the Pryke collection - MS 1826 - in the National Library. Of the six boxes in the collection, the following material appears on the microfilm:
Box 1: Folder 1; Business and personal correspondence, 1909-1917 Folder 2; Letters from Pryke to his wife, 1899-1920 Folder 3; Correspondence, 1903-1920 Folder 4; Correspondence, 1905-1920 Folder 5; Correspondence, 1901-1920 Folder 6; Correspondence, 1901-1925 Folder 7; Correspondence, 1907-1915 Folder 8; Correspondence, 1903-1920
Box 2: Folder 15; 'Contracts for Native Labour' 1900-1914
Box 5: Folder 40 - 'Letters, miner's right, receipts, wage lists 1911, 1908-1911'.

Ernest Beaglehole (1906-1965) was a noted New Zealand ethnopsychologist - see the 'Journal of the Polynesian Society', vol. 75 (1966): 109-119. See also Ernest and Pearl Beaglehole, 'Pangai: Village in Tonga, Polynesian Society Memoir No. 18' (1941), Wellington.

The journal begins when Beaglehole and his wife Pearl were northbound to Tonga from Auckland in MV Matua. Most of the time in Tonga was spent at Pangai, Ha'apai Group. The journal consists of 156 foolscap pages, partly typed and partly handwritten. Four additional pages contain a short synopsis of daily events. There are also notes inquiring about transport in the Matua, a brief critique of Henry James' 'bitch goddess', a rough draft of a critique of Mariner's Tonga, and a 12 pp. typescript entitled 'Tonga, the world's smallest kingdom' which was evidently written in the late 1950s. NOTE: The microfilm of the Tongan journal was made from a photocopy of the original. The last few lines on some pages are very faint and one or two have been cut. The second paragraph of the first page has been obscured on the microfilm to avoid problems of access.

Rev A. Harry Voyce, and his wife Beryl, arrived in the Solomon Islands from New Zealand in 1926 to work as Methodist missionaries at Siwai, an inland area in the south of Bougainville Island. They left the Solomons in 1958.

Correspondence between Voyce and the general secretary for foreign missions of the New Zealand Methodist Church.
Correspondence - outwards (from Voyce), 1921-59
Correspondence - inwards, 1921-40 and 1952-59

Gerald Brown took employment in Port Moresby in 1936 working first in the Burns Philp butchery and freezer department and later as a clerk in the Lands Department. He was appointed Patrol Officer by the Papuan Administration in 1937. Gerald’s brother, Jack, was a Medical Assistant at the same time in Papua. Jack Brown later qualified as a doctor and practised in PNG. Gerald married Marjorie Kathleen Thom in Port Moresby on 31 January 1940. Their daughter, Helen, was born in February 1941. Both she and her mother were evacuated south in November 1941. Gerald was transferred into ANGAU and patrolled in Popondeta, Awala, Ilimo and Kokoda in March 1942. He was appointed Warrant Officer at Rigo in July 1942 and later promoted to Captain. He was at Awala in Aug 1942 when the Japanese landed there and was hospitalised in Port Moresby in September with malaria and malnutrition after 42 days in the mountains.

When civil administration was restored in PNG the family were reunited and Gerald resumed duty as an Inspector of Native Labour attached to the Headquarters of the newly formed Department of Labour in Madang. He was New Britain District Labour Officer based in Rabaul from March 1948 till December 1949. From July 1950 till January 1951 he was New Ireland District Labour Officer based in Kavieng. In 1951 Gerald was appointed senior Inspector of Labour in the Morobe District based in Lae and residing at Malahang nearby. The family remained in Lae where Helen contracted polio in 1958 and moved south with her mother. In 1959 Gerald was posted to Port Moresby where his wife, Marjorie joined him in 1960. Helen returned to Port Moresby in 1964 where she worked as a clerk in the Departments of Health and Trade & Industry. Gerald retired in May 1965 and moved south with Marjorie to the Central Coast of NSW.

Gerald Brown’s wartime papers, including his diary written at Popendetta, Awala, Ilimo and Kokoda, 21 Mar-27 Jul 1942. Brown’s personal files which include a copy of his report of his patrol in the Chirima Valley, Jun 1942, Dobuduru inspection reports, plantation and native labour surveys, Dec 1944-Jan 1945, Brown’s first monthly report from Dobuduru, Feb 1945, and many other documents relating to labour matters in PNG as well as Brown’s own career in the TPNG Department of Labour as an Inspector of Native Labour, 1946-1965. Brown’s correspondence with his brothers, Jack Brown, Medical Assistant, PNG, and Dermot Brown, 1936-1952. Photographs taken in Port Moresby, Rabaul, Kavieng, Malahang and Lae, 1937-1965.

See reel list for further details.

Dr Fox (1878- ) was born in Dorset, England, and educated in New Zealand. He joined the Melanesian Mission from New Zealand and was posted to the Mission's school on Norfolk Island in 1902. After being ordained in 1903, he spent some time in the Banks Group of the New Hebrides before going to San Cristobal, Solomon Islands, in 1908 where he began a school and started learning the local languages. He remained in the Solomons throughout the Pacific war, living behind Japanese lines. After the war he continued as a teacher and remained in the Solomons until well into his eighties.

The diaries cover the periods 1942-50 inclusive, 1952, 1955-56, 1958-59 and 1963. There are also some loose letters. During the period of the Japanese occupation of the Solomons the diaries are in the Arosi language.