Please see PMB 1039 for full entry

Item 1: Manuscript by Fison entitled Old Fiji containing notes on Fijian history and customs with descriptive anecdotes. n.d. 82pp<BR>Item 2: Manuscripts in unidentified handwriting of biographical essays about South Seas missionary martyrs. 68ff, as follows:<BR>A - Massacre of the Rev. Thomas Baker and party on Sunday 21st July 1867 at Gag dela Vatu Na Vosa, Viti Levu, Fiji. After 1867. 39ff.<br>A(i) - Incomplete account in one handwriting, 20ff.<BR>A(ii) - Complete account in two other hands, apparently the version of a planter and store owner who lived at the Rewa River mouth at the time of the massacre. 19ff.<BR>B - John Coleridge Patteson. After 1871. 14ff.<BR>C - Rev. John Williams. After 1889. 15ff<BR>Items 1 and 2 are held by the Dixson Library<BR>Item 3: Press copy book, Sermons, articles and letters, 1867 - 1873, held by the Mitchell Library

The Fison project. Material held by St Mark's Theological Centre, Canberra, will appear as PMB 1045, but is not yet available for copying.

n/a

John Chauner Williams (1819-1874) was a son of the noted South Seas LMS missionary, the Rev. John Williams, who was killed at Erromanga, New Hebrides, in 1839. From 1858 to 1873, J.C. Williams was British consul in Samoa, and he was also United States consul for several years until 1864. Williams was married twice - the second time in 1855 to Amelia (Amy) Crook.

This microfilm contains journal-letters (in two exercise books) of John Chauner Williams for the period October 25, 1873 to February 20, 1874. The journal-letters were written to Williams' wife in Samoa while he was in Sydney for medical treatment. The microfilm also contains journal-letters of Williams' wife (in four exercise books) for the periods October 22, 1855 to January 4, 1856; and October 25, 1873, to February 20, 1874, and one on loose sheets for September 1 to September 19, 1864. The first of these was kept in Sydney to send to her husband in Samoa; those for 1873-1874 were kept in Samoa to send to her husband in Sydney; that for 1864 was kept in Samoa to send to a woman friend in England to give her some little idea of our daily life. The letters contain many intimate glimpses of Samoan life and personalities. For a fuller outline of their content see the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, Jan. 1969:6. The Mitchell Library holds the originals of all except that for September 1 - September 19, 1864.

F.J.C. (Frank) and Rita Paton were Presbyterian missionaries in Tangoa (Vanuatu) from 1931-1933. They married in Ballarat in April 1931 and in May 1931 left for Vanuatu.
“Rev. Dr. John G. Paton’s eldest son, Rev. Robert Robson Paton could not serve in the New Hebrides because doctor declared him medically unfit for work in the tropics. But he was pleased that two of his sons were able to go. Frank was te first of the third generation. He worked as assistant to Rev. Fred Bowie, the Principal of Tangoa Teachers’ Training Institute (TTI) and District Missionary of South Santo. Frank was a teacer supported financially by the John G. Paton Fund.
At Tangoa, Frank built a workshop for the TTI students where they could do repair and maintenance jobs. After returning to Australia, three children, Barbara, David and Ruth, were born. Frank undertook pastoral work and preaching in NSW, then taught at Caulfield Grammar School and Scotch College Melbourne. Rita died in 1982. Frank subsequently remarried.
Frank writes the following, “After my early days at school I began work in the city of Melbourne but decided that I really wanted to become a school teacher. So for some years I did a lot of study and teaching. We married in Ballarat, Victoria, and set off in 1931 for the Tangoa Training Institute (TTI).
The Rev. Bowie was the principal and we were the only assistants. There were 60 students, of which about a dozen were married.
We set our clocks every fortnight at sunrise, for 6am, because at that time we met in the Hall for prayers and study. 8-8:30 was breakfast time, 8:30-10 school work; 10:15-12:30 practical work in the plantation and weeding and gathering coconuts for copra, while my work was on the buildings etc., to see that they were in good order. For this work I could call on as many helpers as were necessary for any building and carpentry jobs.
The afternoon was for the students to work in their gardens over on Santo, except that we always needed to keep at least four of them in case anything unexpected suddenly had to be done. Rita took the married women for school work in the afternoons. All sorts of things might suddenly become urgent problems – for instance, the baker’s oven developed some cracks and, as the two students who looked after the bread making usually baked every Tuesday and Thursday, they had to do it on Monday and Friday that week and I had to attend to and supervise the dismantling of all the bricks and make sure that the “new” bricks were quite sound before rebuilding the oven ready for the Friday baking. (The oven was about six feet long, four feet wide and four feet high.) At one time, we found that the workshop was in a bad way. White ants or similar unwelcome guests had made it unsafe. It had to be pulled down, the timber burnt and a new one built.
Often in the evening, the students would practice singing new hymns in the Hall and as our house (“Number Three”) was only about 50 yards away, it was a joy to listen to. The hymn books had tonic solfa notation and the students were wonderful sight readers.

(From They served in Vanuatu by Jungwirth, Fred, 1988, 2nd ed., p.39)

Diaries 1931-1932.
Various correspondence 1931-1939.
Drafts of various writings (memoir, etc.) 1950-1971(?).
Documents relating to Tangoa Training Institute and Presbyterian Church of New Hebrides 1970.
Printed material relating to New Hebrides 1951-1993.
Documents relating to The Pacific Theological College, Fiji, 1970(?).
Newspaper clippings 1931,1994.

See Finding aids for details.

Christian Pierre Ciastkowski was born in Marseille (France), 12 Mar 1949, arrived Australia probably with parents on 17 Jan 1951. Completed secondary education at Ringwood High School, 1967. Arrived Papua New Guinea 1968. Married Joan Doreen Mathers (b. Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 11 Apr 1952) at Kimbe on 30 Aug 1975. During period in PNG, he held various positions in PNG administration: Cadet Patrol Officer from 24 Jun 1968, Patrol Officer from Jun 1970 and Assistant District Officer from July 1973; he was appointed Local Court Magistrate and Commissioner for Declarations in July 1972. His postings included Chuave and Gembogl in Chimbu District (Province); Kandrian, Gasmata, Eseli, Cape Gloucester and Hoskins in West New Britain; and Nipa in the Southern Highlands. Towards the end of his career in PNG he also acted as Provincial Planner and Co-ordinator to the Oro provincial government. He seems to have begun work with a private firm (and thus to have severed ties with PNG Government) on 6 Nov 1978. Ciastkowski died in 2011; he is survived by his wife.

Patrol reports, patrol diaries, related documents and correspondence 1969-1974.
Personal (employment/career) files 1968-1978.
Bulletins, circulars, information sheets, etc from various TPNG departments and agencies 1961-1978.

See Finding aids for details.

Charles Sarka (1879-1960) was born in Chicago. He began a career as an artist in his early teens; visited Egypt in 1902 and Tahiti and Moorea in 1903; and was a frequent contributor to such American magazines as Collier's, Scribner's, Cosmopolitan, Everybody's and Harper's in his later years. An exhibition of water colours which he did in Tahiti and Mo'orea was held in New York in 1963. Examples of his work were bought by some of America's leading art galleries.

Tahiti Nui' is a narrative of Sarka's life during his sojourn in Tahiti and Moorea in French Polynesia. See also an article by Robert Langdon in Pacific Islands Monthly, December, 1966, pp.93-97.

A detailed account of Presbyterian church missionary activity in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) from 1857 to 1938.

The material is associated with the New Hebrides Presbyterian Mission Synod.

Minutes of the Executive Committee, 21 Apr 1921-5 Mar 1925<BR>Minutes of the Melanesian Mission Finance Board, 25 Mar 1925 - 31 Jul 1934. <P><B>See reel list for further details</B>