Minutes of Missionaries' Committee, 1929-1938 and Minutes of the Mission Council, 1935-1951, of the London Missionary Society (Samoan District)

A Catholic mission at Talomako, Big Bay, was established in 1900 by Father Pierre Bochu, SM. In the following year, Father Casimir Bancarel arrived and remained until 1905. The dictionary is not in the handwriting of either Bochu or Bancarel. For letters by them see PMB 56.

The author of the dictionary is unknown.

Dr and Mrs Miller were missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand on the Island of Tongoa in Vanuatu from 1941 to 1947 when Miller became principal of the Tangoa Teachers Training Institute on Tangoa Island (as opposed to Tongoa Island in the Shepherd Group) just off the coast of Santo Island. In 1952 the Millers took a parish in Auckland, New Zealand, returning to Tangoa in 1971 to set up the Presbyterian Bible College. They left the New Hebrides/Vanuatu in 1973.

The material on this reel is presented in two parts: Part I, The Tongaon Dictionary and Part II, Languages of the Central Islands. The Dictionary, which is incomplete, was compiled during field service (1941-73). Miller describes the dictionary as colloquial rather than ecclesiastical, making use of material produced by the Reverends Oscar Michelsen and Peter Milne, missionaries in the New Hebrides in the late 1800s. Much of the explanatory material in the dictionary is in Tongoan. Part II begins with a grammar and word list for the Makatea language (Polynesian) of Emae and continues with brief grammars of four of the seven dialects of Efatese identified by Miller:<BR>Lelepa (Efate)<BR> Erakor (Efate)<BR>Emau (Efatese) and Epau-Fuari (Eastern Efatese). Miller has provided a detailed introduction to the dictionary and to each of the grammars in Part II.

Uncatalogued manuscripts held in the archives and library at the Evech‚ in Papeete, including the following compilations by P. Amerigo Cools: <I>D‚buts de la Mission Catholique … Tahiti, 1841-1842: extraits du journal en Aph‚m‚rides du P. Satutnin Fournier; FrŠre Martin Darque, missionnaire des sacr‚s-coeurs [1816-1863]: documentation; L'Evˆch‚ de Papeete et les FrŠres Bƒtisseurs; Le PŠre Germain Fierens et la conversion de Napuka; La lettre du P. Albert Montiton ss.cc. sur les traditions et coutumes de Paumotous; La Mission Catholiques de L'Ile de Pƒques: rapport de Mgr Tepano Jaussen sur la destruction de la mission; les huit lettres du P. Gaspar Zuhmbohm.</I><BR>Together with a history of the Picpus Order in Polynesia, <I>Les Picpusiens en Ployn‚sie</I>, probably by P. Venance Prat, published as four separate pamphlets between 1964 and 1968; Jean Charlot (comp.), <I>Journal de D‚sir‚ Louis Maigret, premiŠre partie Les Gambier, 1834 … 1840</I>; P. Maurice Desmedt ss cc, <I>P. Clair Fouqu‚ ss.cc. et la conversion de l'archipel Tuamotu; Statistiques - marriages, baptˆmes, communions pascales, 1841-1880</I>; L'abb‚ Tryphon Mama Taira Putairi, <I>E atoga Magareva mei te ao eteni roa</I>. Cahier 10; Josepha Teuho a Tepage, <I>Legends and History from the Tuamotus</I>, transcribed (in Tuamotu) by Ignace Estall, with other related material.<P><B>See reel lists for further information</B>

This collection of 44 photographs documents time spent by Gwen and Tom Taylor at Buin Area School and Kerema in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea from 1945 to 1961. Most of the photographs relate to Buin Area School and document the physical appearance of the school and various aspects of life there. These include photographs of students in classrooms, making cane furniture, weaving, swimming and gardening. Several photographs show Gwen Taylor holding babies and being pictured with nuns. Tom Taylor is pictured in a classroom and mention is made of his role as the principal of the school at Buin. Some of the photographs depict special occasions and ceremonial events being celebrated by local people. There are good examples of houses, school buildings and a church. One photograph depicts the purchase of a new truck and there are a few photographs depicting canoes, including an outrigger canoe. Also pictured are boats, including the MV Gona. One photo appears to show artillery at Kokopo. A few photographs feature non-local adults and children posing for the camera. One photograph shows a large cloud of smoke and appears to be the burning of garden. Another shows an explosion in the sea.

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.

For details see PMB Doc 34

Nos. 55-82, January 1907 - October 1913

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

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.

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. After playing a prominent part in the downfall of the head of the Samoan Government, Colonel A.B. Steinberger, Young sailed for the Marshall Islands to open a trading station for Thomas Farrell at Ebon Atoll. About the end of 1879, Young became business manager for a German firm, A. Capelle & Co., of Jaluit.

The journal describes Young's life as a trader for Capelle. His headquarters were at Guam, then the capital of Spain's settlements in the Mariana Islands. Young made frequent visits to other islands in the Marianas and also to islands in the Carolines and Marshalls. See also PMB MS 21 and 23 and the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, Dec. 1968:5, pp.1-12.