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.

James Lyle Young (1849-1929) was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and went to Australia with his parents in the mid-1850's. After working in Australia as a station hand, Young, in 1870, went to Fiji where he was associated with a cotton-planting venture at Taveuni. In 1875, he left Fiji on a trading voyage to Samoa, and from May, 1876, to October, 1881, he worked as a trader in the Marshall, Mariana and Caroline Islands. In 1882, Young went to Tahiti to become manager of the Papeete trading store of Andrew Crawford & Co., of San Francisco. In 1888, he went into business in Tahiti on his own account. He was closely associated with the Pacific Islands for the rest of his life, as managing director of S.R. Maxwell & Co., of Tahiti, and owner of Henderson and Macfarlane Ltd., of Auckland. He became recognised as an authority on the life and culture of the region.

Letters, notebooks, memoranda, articles, etc. dealing with Young's career and interests from 1878 to the year of his death. Includes a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on 'The Trouble in Samoa' (31/3/1899), a paper on German expansion in the Pacific (1908), correspondence on the Pitcairn Islanders between Young and the British Consulate in Tahiti (1911-13) and an account by Young of his family's history and his own career (1919, c.1924). Some letters written in Micronesia as well as materials from French Polynesia. A full list of other items in the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, Dec. 1968:5, p.12 and Jan. 1969:6, pp.10-11. See also PMB 21 and 22.
See Finding aids for details.

Charles Morris Woodford was born in 1852 and educated at Tonbridge School in England. He settled in Suva about 1882 and from Fiji visited Kiribati (the Gilbert Islands group), as Government agent on the ketch Patience. In 1886, as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society he made the first of three successive explorations of the Solomon Islands, especially Guadalcanal, where he was the first white man to penetrate the interior to any distance, collecting natural history specimens for the British Museum. His experiences are described in his book A Naturalist Among Headhunters (1890). In 1895 Woodford became Acting Consul and Deputy Commissioner at Samoa, and in the following year, a part of the Solomon Group having been made a British Protectorate, he was appointed the first Resident Commissioner, a post which he retained until his retirement in 1914. His later years were spent in Sussex.
Woodford contributed an account of his visit to the Gilbert Islands to The Geographical Journal in 1895, and a note on Ontong Java in 1909. In 1916 he read a paper to the Royal Geographical Society on Polynesian settlements in the Solomon Islands, published in the Journal in 1926. Woodford helped elucidate the narratives of Mandaña’s discovery of the Solomon Islands by identifying places visited by the Spaniards and taking photographs for inclusion in the Hakluyt Society publications. He also published papers in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, of which he was a Fellow.
From The Geographical Journal, 1928, pp.206-207.

This microfilm copy of the Woodford Papers was made by the Bureau (as PMB 150-PMB154) in 1971 when the papers were held for a time at the Department of Pacific History, RSPAS, Australian National University. Since then the microfilm negative has been held under restricted access in the Records Room in the Division of Pacific and Asian History where it has been used from time to time by various scholars. The family of Mr Woodford has now given permission for the microfilm to be released.

The papers are arranged in 30 bundles which are microfilmed in the following order:
Reel 1 – Bundles 2-7.
Reel 2 – Bundles 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18 & 19.
Reel 3 – Bundles 13, 17 & 21.
Reel 4 – Bundles 20, 22, 23, 24 & 25.
Reel 5 – Bundles 27, 29, 30 & 11.
Bundle 1, photographs, have not been microfilmed. No list of the documents in bundles 9, 14, 26 & 28, which have also not been microfilmed, is available at present.

The documents in the bundles are classified in the following 12 series:
Series 1 Diaries
• 1/1 'Journal of a voyage from Suva Fiji to the Gilbert Group and back. From March 4th to June 22nd 1884'.
• 1/2 Diary 16 April - 5 July 1886
• 1/3 Diary 6 Jul-3 Aug 1886
• 1/4 'Diary from 4th August 1886 to November 10th 1886. Chas M. Woodford, F.R.G.S. Gravesend England'.
• 1/5 A revised version of Diary, April - July 1880. Original at 1/2
• 1/6 Diary 24 January - 5 June, 1887.
• 1/7 Diary 7 June - 25 September, 1887.
• 1/8 Diary 16 August 1888 — 3 January 1889.
• 1/9 Diary of part of tour of duty aboard ‘Pylades’ 30 May - 10 Aug. 1896.
• 1/10 Index to diaries 1886-9 and other works of reference.
Series 2 Correspondence
Series 3 History, geography, voyages, expeditions, administration
Series 4 Ethnography and natural history
Series 5 Languages, vocabularies
Series 6 Zoology
Series 7 Reprints
Series 8 British Colonial reports, notices, proclamations, etc.
Series 9 Press cuttings
Series 10 Photographs
Series 11 Sketches, tracings, maps, plans
Series 12 Manuscripts, cards.
See Finding aids for details.

William Gray (1854-1937) was born near Gawler, South Australia. He obtained his BA from Adelaide University and graduated in divinity from Union College in 1880, the first Presbyterian student to complete the course. He spent 1881, the year of his ordination, in medical training at Adelaide Hospital and as Minister to the congregations of Goodwood and Mount Barker. He married Elizabeth McEwen in 1882 and shortly after they sailed for Weasisi, Tanna, New Hebrides in the <I>Dayspring</I>. Gray was the first Presbyterian Church of South Australia missionary to the New Hebrides. He produced a grammar, primer, hymnal and translation of Luke's Gospel in the Tanna language. At the age of 71 Gray became head of the Smith of Dunsek Presbyterian Mission which later became the nucleus of John Flynn's Australian Inland Mission. See also PMB 1046, 1047 and 1048.

Rev Gray's manuscripts, phamphlets and press cuttings on the labour traffic; copies of some annual reports of the Queensland Kanaka Mission and the Queensland Department of Pacific Island Immigration; pamphlets by J G Paton, A C Smith and J Inglis 1915; William Watt Erskine's recollections of his childhood on Tanna, lantern slides and photographs of missionary life in the New Hebrides, 1880s. <P> <b>See reel list for further details</b>.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, 23 October 1921, Sir Colin took a BA (1943) and MA (1945) at Canterbury University and a Diploma in Anthropology at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He served with the NZ army (1942-44) and with the British Solomon Islands Defence Force (1945).
Sir Colin was appointed in 1945 as an Administrative Cadet in the British Colonial Service and spent a brief training period in the Western District of Fiji. Transferred to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, he served first as District Officer Nggela, Western Solomons, then D.O. and District Commissioner Western (1946-1948), D.O. Choiseul and Ysabel (1948), D.O. Malu`u (1949) and finally District Commissioner Malaita (1950-1952) at the time of the Marching Rule. He was appointed by the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific to be Special Lands Commissioner on 10 July 1953.
In 1954 Sir Colin was seconded to the Western Pacific High Commission Secretariat as Senior Assistant Secretary, Finance and Development. Here Sir Colin completed the report of the Solomon Islands Special Lands Commission on 17 June 1957. He served as Secretary of the BSIP Agriculture and Industrial Affairs Board (1956-57), Chaired the BSIP Copra Marketing Board (1957-58) and represented the UK on the South Pacific Commission Research Council (1958).
In 1959 Sir Colin transferred to Port Vila where he was appointed Assistant British Resident Commissioner of the New Hebrides Condominium (1959-66) and then Resident Commissioner (1966-73). Sir Colin was appointed Governor and Commander in Chief of the Seychelles (1973-76) and then Governor of the Solomon Islands (1976-1978) at the time of their independence. He was the last High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. Sir Colin was knighted in 1977 and retired from his illustrious career in 1978.
Sir Colin had a close association with Professor Jim Davidson and other members of the faculty in Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and the National Centre for Development Studies, having been a Visiting Fellow in the Australian National University for a time. His publications include Customary Land Tenure in the Solomon Islands, 1958, based on the report of the Special Lands Commission, Constitution Making in New Island States, 1982, and Solomons Safari, 1989.

Reel 1: PMB 1189/1-21 Sir Colin manuscripts and articles (with reviews), 1951-88; PMB 1189/22-23 Sir Colin’s speeches, 1967-84; PMB 1189/24 Sir Colin’s press articles about Marching Rule, 1945-51; PMB 1189/25 Sir Colin’s letters to editors re colonial administration, 1981-82; PMB 1189/100-107 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980.
Reel 2: PMB 1189/108-125 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980, cont.
Reel 3: PMB 1189/126-142 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980, cont.
Reel 4: PMB 1189/143-159 Papers re the Solomon Islands, 1881-1980, cont.; PMB 1189/160-167 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993.
Reel 5: PMB 1189/168-183 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993, cont.
Reel 6: PMB 1189/184-196 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993, cont.
Reel 7: PMB 1189/197-216 Papers re Vanuatu (New Hebrides), 1897-1993, cont.; PMB 1189/217-218 Papers re general Pacific matters, 1944-1983.
Reel 8: PMB 1189/219-229 Papers re general Pacific matters, 1944-1983, cont.; PMB 1189/267-271 Papers on constitutional development in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, including resettlement of Gilbertese in the Solomons, 1943-1987.
Reel 9: PMB 1189/272-273 Papers on constitutional development, cont.; PMB 1189/276-280, 285-291 Selected press cuttings, 1953-1989; PMB 1189/294 Selected printed material – Solomon Islands.
Reel 10: PMB 1189/295, 298, 301-303, 306-312 Selected printed material – Solomon Islands, cont.; PMB 1189/384-385, 388 Selected printed material – Vanuatu.
Reel 11: PMB 1189/394-397, 400 Selected printed material – Vanuatu, cont.
<B>See Finding aids for details.</B>

Sister Lida Tonkin (Mrs L. Gill), a nursing sister from Young, NSW, first arrived at the Methodist Mission at Raluana in New Britain (Papua New Guinea) in 1916.

The photographs and post cards include events, daily life and traditional customs practiced in Rabaul in the early 20th century. Funerary and marriage customs are represented. There is a good set of photographs on traditional fishing (PMB Photo 1_31 to PMB Photo 1_46). Other images show canoe building and sailing, basket, broom and string making and traditional houses, mission life and the Malabunga hospital. Dances, such as the Kulau dance, carvings used in dances and the

For details see PMB Doc 34

Nos. 55-82, January 1907 - October 1913

Ellis (1869-1951) was born in Queensland and educated in New Zealand. In the 1890s he became an employee of the Pacific Islands Company Ltd of London, which was involved in the guano industry on islands in the Coral Sea and the Phoenix Group (Kiribati). In 1900, he became curious about a rock which was used as a doorstop in the Sydney office of his company and this led to the discovery of the phosphate deposits on Ocean Island and Nauru. He was a prominent figure in the Pacific Phosphate Company Ltd in 1902. After the phosphate company was bought out by the British, Australian and New Zealand governments after World War I, he became commissioner for New Zealand on the British Phosphate Commission, which was established to exploit the phosphate deposits on Ocean Island and Nauru. He was the author of three books, Ocean Island and Nauru (1936), Adventuring in Coral Seas (1937) and Mid-Pacific Outpost (1946).

The documents on the microfilm include: 1. Ellis' diary for May 1900 when he went to Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati to establish the phosphate industry there; 2. Clippings on the phosphate industry from various newspapers and journals; 3. Correspondence covering the period 1920-51.

For details see PMB Doc 34

Nos. 28-54, April 1900 - October 1906

Nigel Oram was an ethnologist and academic. In 1946, after military service in World War II, he read history at Oxford University. This was followed by a career in the British Colonial Service in East Africa and Uganda. In 1961, Oram helped set up the New Guinea Research Unit, Port Moresby, which was an offshoot of the Australian National University. His role was to undertake social research. To facilitate his information gathering, Oram learnt the Motu and Hula languages. In 1969, he was appointed a fellow at the University of Papua New Guinea, where he remained from 1969 to 1975. Oram returned to Australia where he taught history for nine years at La Trobe University and where, upon his retirement, he became an honorary senior research fellow. An extensive collection of Oram’s PNG research papers is held at the National Library of Australia (MS 9436).

The mystery of Guise: conflict between missionaries, colonial administrators and foreign traders during the British New Guinea Protectorate, Ts., 29pp., is a biography of Reginald Edward Guise, grandfather of Sir John Guise, G.C.M.G., K.B.E., Hon. Ll.D., the first Governor-General of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. This version of Nigel Oram’s manuscript dates from sometime after 1994. In the late 1990s Oram’s health went steadily down hill, and completing the manuscript was beyond him. After Oram’s death, Janet Fingleton rescued the manuscript from her father’s computer. Donald Denoon has since worked on an edited version of this paper which is to be submitted to the Journal of Pacific History. This is a complete copy of the existing manuscript, but note that the references and some of the footnotes are missing.