John Green, an Australian, went to Papua in 1892 and worked on a plantation at Kapadi for about fifteen months before joining the Administration staff of Sir William MacGregor, Lt-Gov. of British New Guinea (later Papua). He eventually became MacGregor's acting private secretary and accompanied him on some of his arduous patrols. After a patrol to the Musa River in September 1895, Green was assigned to build a government station at the junction of the Mambare River and Tamata Creek to protect European miners who were prospecting for gold in that area. Green was murdered at the station in January 1897.

The letters, which are all to members of Green's family in Healesville, Victoria, begin in September 1892 when Green was in Cooktown en route to Port Moresby. Some of the letters are more than 100 pages long. They give a vivid idea of life in Papua when it was under British administration. See also Pacific Islands Monthly Dec. 1940, p.41; June 1941, p.30; April 1942, p.10 and the Bureau's newsletter Pambu July-Sept. 1972:28, pp.1-4