Heinrich Neffgen was Government Interpreter in Samoa in 1916. At that time, Samoa was under New Zealand military occupation.

The papers comprise two documents:

1. An English translation of a report on Samoa by Dr W.H. Solf, the first Governor of German Samoa. The report contains general notes, notes on the Protestant and Roman Catholic missions, and notes on the advisability of not attempting to colonise Samoa with small people from Germany. The report was written for the Imperial Colonial Office in Berlin, but, according to a note by Neffgen, it was not forwarded, as a result of an order dated November 21, 1907
2. Six Samoan sketches by Neffgen entitled: 1. The Samoan race; 2. Fa'asamoa; 3. The Prescriptive Law of the Samoans; 4. On invectives - Upu Palauvale; 5. Samoan High Titles and the Distribution of Fine Mats; 6. On Aitus.

Items on Pacific Islands from reports of annual and semi-annual conferences associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Church was active in French Polynesia, including Tahiti, Tuamotu Islands, and Tubuai, as well as Hawaiian Islands, Samoa and Tonga in the period covered.

Please see PMB 581 for full entry.

The papers are:

1. documents concerning Hanna Solf-Dotti, Solf's widow;
2. a biography of Solf by Maximilien von Hagen, 1937-39;
3. correspondence re the publication Solf/Wolff-Metternich correspondence, 1946-49;
4. a manuscript book entitled 'Elf Jahre in Samoa und andere Aufzeichnungen' (Eleven years in Samoa and other notes), written in 1895 by one von Wolffersdorff, known as Tulafale Falepoumaa.

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society, and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan District Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928.

Letters to the London Missionary Society in London from LMS missionaries in Samoa.

The English summaries of papers relating to the German administration of Western Samoa were made by Mrs Trudi Newbury for the then Department of Pacific History, to assist the late Mr R.P. Gilson in preparing a Ph.D. thesis on the administration of Samoa. A book by Gilson, entitled 'Samoa: 1830-1900', was published posthumously by Oxford University Press in 1970.

A brief description of the contents appears at the beginning of the microfilm. See also PMB MS 1003 and 1009 which contain Gilson's drafts and research materials.

See PMB MS 432, material relating to Roman Catholic Mission Fiji.

Correspondence from New Caledonia, Wallis, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Moruroa (Tuamotu archipelago), Sydney, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Naples.