PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAU

Room 7004, Coombs Building
 Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies 
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia
Telephone: (06) 249 2521	Fax: (06) 249 0198	E-mail: pambu@coombs.anu.edu.au

	PMB 1106	FARLAND, Sister Merle: diary (photocopy of original) and index, 
			Dec 1938-Mar 1940, Nov 1941-Feb 1943, together with correspondence, 
			press cuttings and other documents, 1942-1978, including, 
			Rev. J R Metcalfe, “The Gizo Scuttle”. (Available for reference.)

Merle Stephanie Farland (1906?-1988) was trained at Auckland Hospital. In 1938 she was appointed to the Methodist Mission Hospital at Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands, and served there till the outbreak of war in the Pacific. In January 1942, when the Japanese first attacked Rabaul, most of the missionaries left the Solomons. Miss Farland was the only woman in the service of the Methodist Mission to stay. She refused to leave on the grounds that a nurse was necessary to attend to the needs of the Solomon Islanders, and that as she had just returned from furlough she was the right person to stay. Her station was at Bilua, in Vella Lavella, but from there she visited New Georgia, Simbo and Choiseul which were occupied by the Japanese at the time. For a time Miss Farland ran a coast watching station herself. After the war she became a tutor sister at Lautoka Hospital in Fiji where she was presented with an MBE for her services on 12 May 1947.

Reel No.1	Index		
	Diary (Ts. copy of original), pp. 44-97	20 Dec 1938-17 Nov 1939	
	Diary (Ts. copy of original), pp.106-124	30 Dec 1939-12 May 1940	
	Diary (Ts. copy of original), pp.134-138	5 Aug-16 Sep 1940	
	Diary (Photocopy of Ms. original)	19 Nov 1941-22 Feb 1943	
			
	“The Gizo Scuttle”, by Rev. J. R. Metcalfe		
			
	Correspondence and other documents:		
	Joy to Tinagu and Tamagu	12 Mar 1942	
	Donald Kennedy, Western Solomons District Officer, to Sr Merle Fraland	9 Dec 1942	
	Donald Kennedy to Dr MacPherson, Deputy Director, Medical Services, Western Pacific, introducing Merle Farland	19 Dec 1942	
	Col. Brown Rolston, HQ First Island Command to M. Jan Bougeau, Secretary General of the Government of Noumea, re stockings for Miss Farland	24 Dec 1942	
	Col. L C Sherman to Col. J M Twigg, re transport for Miss Farland	26 Mar 1943	
	A R Scrivin, Methodist Missionary Society of NZ, to Sr Merle Farland, letter of appreciation	22 Jun 1944	
	Citation, report from the Fiji Times, 14 May 1947, and letter from Merle Farland to her family re award of MBE	15 May 1947	
	“Nurse Who Beat the Japs”, press cutting, Eastern Daily (photocopy)	n.d.	
	“She Refused to Run from Jap Invaders”, press cutting, Review	Dec 1961	
	“A Memorial Completed”, press cutting re plaque on new educational building at Bilua	7 Apr 1962	
	“The Nurse Who Stayed Behind”, press cutting, NZ Herald	9 Sep 1978	
	Funeral notice and eulogies for Sr Merle Farland	21 May 1988	
	Various press cuttings	c.1942-1954