Bob Langdon, the first executive officer of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, 1968-1984, established his reputation as a Pacific Specialist with the publication of his history of Tahiti, <i>Island of Love</i>, in London in 1959. As a journalist with the <i>Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM)</i>, 1962-67, he travelled extensively in the Islands on assignments producing investigative articles, many on obscure aspects of Pacific history. It was in the <i>PIM</i>, too, that Bob first published his account of the marooned Spanish sailors on Amanu in the Tuamotu Islands. This discovery became the basis of his studies of European castaways in the Pacific Islands, prior to Captain Cook, which appeared in his books, <i>The Lost Caravel</i> (1975) and <i>The Lost Caravel Re-explored</i> (1988), and in his many articles published in scholarly journals.

The first volume of Langdon’s autobiography, <i>Every Goose a Swan: An Australian Autobiography</i> (Sydney, Farm Cove Press, 1995) takes the reader up to 1959 when, as a journalist in Adelaide, Langdon was attracted by an advertisement for a ‘Journalist-printer wanted for Polynesian islands’.

Volumes 2, of Langdon’s autobiography, Ts., 107pp., Chs.46-65, and Epilogue, gives an account of Langdon’s work as a journalist on the <i>Pacific Islands Monthly</i>, his recruitment to the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau by Harry Maude, his experiences at the Australian National University, his expeditions to the Pacific islands, his work for the Australian government’s South Pacific Cultures Fund, and his pusuit of his unorthodox views on the migration of the Pacific Islanders.

Vanua Scope, an independent French language weekly, was edited by Patrick Antoine Delcoite, Port Vila, Vanuatu.

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In the most industrial country in Oceania, labour unions are quite strong and active, and at times their strikes become militant and political, pushing politicians to complain or listen, for example, on the issue of favoring local hiring that was inscribed in both the Noumea Accord and the organic laws that followed (nc, 18 Oct 2007). Faced with rising living costs, they also want their share of the proceeds from economic development, so the minimum monthly wage was raised in January to 120,000 Pacific francs, or about us$1,200 (nc, 8 Jan 2007). Mining unions noted the rising price of nickel and demanded a corresponding increase in wages, and those in various support or service sectors felt likewise. But social dialogue between workers and employers has all too often not gone smoothly in New Caledonia, leading to roadblocks with burning tires and work stoppages without enough action by the State, positive or negative (nc, 4 Sep, 2 Oct, 9 Oct 2007). France too has its powerful labor unions who strike militantly, but in late 2007 Sarkozy battled transporters over pension reforms, while a thousand people marched in Noumea against “terrorism” by local unions (BBC News, 13 Nov 2007; nc, 12 Nov 2007). For example, USTKE, which Estrosi had criticized, blocked the local cement industry and urban bus company for months—along with other strikes to support favoring local hiring and protecting workers fired for union activities—and in October USTKE called a general strike because the police had intervened (nc, 13 Oct 2007). After testing the waters in the presidential and legislative elections by backing Bove and then its own candidates, respectively, USTKE defied appeals by the FLNKS not to divide the Kanak vote and formed its own Labor Party in November, with support from metropolitan Trotskyists, dedicating itself to independence, anti-globalization, and revolutionary socialism (nc, 16 Nov 2007). It remained one of the two largest unions, as labor leaders compete for membership using dramatic strikes to attract support (nc, 12 April 2007). From David Chappell, “Political review: New Caledonia”, The Contemporary Pacific 12.2 (2000) 515-520.
After a decade, in 2007, USTKE started a new series of Combat Ouvrier, again as a monthly, renumbering from No.1. No.8, Feb 2008, up to No.27, Nov 2010, are available on the web at: http://ustke.org/pdf.html.

Combat Ouvrier, Nos.1-43, 45-49, 51-54, 1992-2001, published monthly.
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Basil Shaw BA, BEd, DPE (Qld), MA (Ed., London), PhD, completed his biography of Michael Somare as a PhD dissertation in the Division of Humanities, Griffith University, Queensland.

A study of traditional leadership in Papua New Guinean societies provides the conceptual framework for Basil Shaw’s, Somare: A Political Biography of the First Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. His study examines Somare’s life from his birth in the Murik Lakes in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea in 1936 to his loss of the prime ministership of Papua New Guinea in 1985.

The study is presented in two parts. The first part, Chapters 1-4, establishes a need for a biography of Somare and identifies three major objectives: firstly, to review the material in Somare’s autobiography, Sana, which covers the period to 1975, and to add to it where possible; secondly, to update Somare’s life to 1985, when he lost the prime ministership for the second time, and thirdly to explore the relationship between traditional leadership and contemporary political leadership at the national level.

The second part of the study, Chapters 5 to 10, is the political biography proper. The early chapters focus on the developmental stages of Somare’s life, showing how the leadership characteristics of oratory, effective communication, negotiating ability and the determination to retain power function in the National Parliament. The latter chapters of this part of the dissertation examine the difficulties that Somare and others faced in the introduction of the Westminster system of government into Papua New Guinea. The challengers whom Somare has faced as a political leader, and the issues which deprived him of government in 1980 and 1985, are also examined. (From Basil Shaw’s ‘Abstract’.)

Brother Leak was born in 1942 in Castlemaine Victoria. He joined the Marist Brothers Teaching Order in 1960 and was appointed to Papua New Guinea in 1974. He taught 1974 - 79 at St Xavier's High School in the East Sepik province; 1980-82 at Wabag High School in the Enga province; 1985-92 at St Joseph's Rigu on Bougainville. 1993 at Gizo in the Solomon Islands.
He is now teaching at Red Bend Catholic College in Forbes after teaching for thirteen years at Assumption College Kilmore.

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Born in Osnabrück, Germany, Fr Miltrup was professed a Marist in 1932 in Glanerbrug, Holland. He studied Theology in Fürstenzell, Passau and was ordained there in 1935. A teacher in Ahmsen and Meppen during 1936-37, he was appointed to the mission in Oceania. He arrived in Kieta, North Solomon Is Region (Bougainville), PNG, on the 11th January, 1938, the year before the 2nd World War began. He was a valiant Marist missionary priest of the old-fashioned type who survived the harsh conditions of the early days of the mission in Bougainville. During the war he suffered greatly when he was a prisoner of the Japanese and barely escaped death on one occasion. After the war, in 1945, he went to Australia to recover health. A year later he was back on the job. In 1948 he was appointed Director of the Major Seminary in Torokina where the first local priests were ordained in 1953. The following year 1954 he returned to parish ministry in the Buin, Kieta, Arawa and Panguna areas. All went well until just before the Bougainville crisis in 1986 when he had retired to Koromira under the care of Hermann Wöste. He suffered a major setback in his health and was obliged to return to Germany for better care and treatment. In all he gave 48 years of his life to missionary work in the Oceania province.
(From: www.maristoceania.org/In%20Memoriam.)

• Paipelaten Yia Belong Mi Long Bougainville, Ts., p/c, 193pp., bound, in Tok Pisin. This document is a bound photocopy of Fr. Miltrup's typescript made from a copy lent to Father Kevin Kerley SM by Father Miltrup's house girl. The annotations are made by Fr. Kerley in pencil. The autobiography covers the period 1935 to 1986.
• Bougainville World War II, Ts., p/c, pp.27pp., loose, n.d., in English.