Main journal entries written from Taviuni (Taveuni?), Macuata, Vanua Levu, Koroivono and Levuka, Fiji; on board schooner "Daphne" towards Futuna and Uvea; at Futuna and Uvea; on board schooner "Louisa Ryder" towards Samoa; Apia, Mulifanua and Falelatai, Samoa; Tutuial (now American Samoa); on board barque "Metaris" towards Fiji; on board schooner "Pio Nono" towards Samoa.

James Lyle Young (1849-1929) was born in Londonderry (Derry), Ireland, and went to Australia with his parents in the mid-1850s. After working in Australia as a station hand, Young, in 1870, went to Fiji where he was associated for five years with a cotton-planting venture at Taveuni. In April, 1875, he left Fiji on a trading voyage to Samoa via Futuna and Wallis Island.

The journal gives a vivid account of Young's life during three of his most adventurous years. It begins with a trading voyage round the Macuata coast of Fiji followed by a voyage to Samoa via Futuna and Wallis Islands. In Samoa, Young saw a great deal of the American adventurer, Colonel A.B. Steinberger, who headed the Samoan Government for 10 extraordinary months. After playing a prominent part in the events that led to Steinberger's downfall, Young sailed for the Marshall Islands in May, 1876, to open a trading station for Thomas Farrell at Ebon Atoll. He remained in Farrell's employ until November, 1877 when he went to Majuro.
See also PMB MS 22 and 23 and the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, Dec. 1968:5, pp.1-12.

This collection of 52 photographs records a visit to Fiji and Tonga in January/February 1975 by Bill and Jan Gammage. The visit was to see friends and look around.
Of Fiji, there are 28 photos. The subjects include: Nadi, Man Friday Hotel near Korolevu on the south coast of Viti Levu, Suva, and Levuka on the Ovalau Islands.
Of Tonga, 24 photos were taken. The subjects include in and around Kolovai, Sione and Ruth Latukefu's home, Nuku'alofa on the north coast including the Royal Palace, Orahaei Beach near caves and a boat connected to the Minerva Reefs incident, the blowholes and the Triithon.

The Oceania Marist Province Archives Series (OMPA) is the result of a special project during which records of the Catholic Church in islands of the Western Pacific were copied by Father Theo B. Cook, SM in collaboration with the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. (Cook was born Theodorus Bernardus Wilhelmus Kok but chose to go by the name Cook in Australia: Povey, 2010). The OMPA series covers the Diocese of Tonga (OMPA 1-25), Diocese of Samoa and Tokelau (OMPA 26-74), Marist Fathers, Rome (OMPA 80-100), Diocese of Wallis and Futuna (OMPA 101-126), Diocese of Port Vila (OMPA 127-178), Archdiocese of Noumea (OMPA 179-360) and the Oceania Marist Province Archives (OMPA 361-400).

Detailed indexes were prepared for the six diocese and those records copied in Rome. These can be found at http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/pambu/collections/microfilm.php or compiled in The Catholic Church in the Western Pacific: a guide to records on microfilm (Robert Langdon, ed.), Canberra, 1986.

Fison (1832-1907) a university-educated man, with a keen interest in anthropology, was born in Suffolk, England. He migrated to Australia in 1856, joined the Methodist Church, and went to Fiji as a Wesleyan missionary in 1864. He remained in Fiji until 1884, when he returned to Australia and became editor of the Spectator, a Melbourne church paper.

Copies of letters, notes on Fiji customs and personalities, sketches of life in Fiji, and an early draft of Fison's book 'Tales of Old Fiji' (London, 1907). The wording of some of the tales, as recorded in these papers, has been much worked over and occasionally differs in its final form from that in the published versions.