W R Carpenter & Company Limited was registered in Sydney in 1914. The company was founded by Walter Randolf Carpenter. He was subsequently joined by his brothers, J A and W H Carpenter and, still later, by his two sons, R B and C H Carpenter. The company was initially involved in shipping and trading island produce in Papua, including copra, cocoa, trochus, beche-de-mer and green snail shell. After 1920 it became involved in copra plantations in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea and extended its interests to the Solomon islands, and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1938 it pioneered an air link between Sydney and Lae. After the War, in which Carpenters suffered heavy losses, the company was restructed as a holding company. In 1956, when R B Carpenter was Chairman of the Board of Directors, the Carpenter Group purchased the retail operations of Morris Hedstrom & Co in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

This is a poor quality photocopy of the original, Ts., 97pp., given to the Bureau by Pepita Carpenter. Ch.1, Pioneering the Pacific, pp.1-3; Ch.2, The Costa Rica Packet, pp.4-7; Ch.3, Treasure in Trochus, pp.8-9; Ch.4, A Small Beginning and a Stumble, pp.10-13; Ch.5, The Company Regained, pp.14-16; Ch.6, Between the Wars – an Era of Expansion, pp.17-21; Ch.7, The Creative Years – Shipping, pp.22-25; Ch.8, The Creative Years – Aviation, pp.26-31; Ch.9, The Creative Years – Merchandising, pp.31-38; Ch.10, The Creative Years – The Plantation Industries, pp.34-38; Ch.11, Sir Walter – Thoughts and Theories, pp.39-45; Ch.12, Stranded in Canada, pp.46-50; Ch.13, The Ravages of War, pp.50-53; Ch.14, Gains and Some Losses, pp.54-59; Ch.15, A New Chairman – Growth Continues, pp.60-65; Ch.16, The Tradition Maintained, pp.66-70; Ch.17, The Pattern Changes, pp.71-79; Ch.18, Some Turbulent Years, pp.80-84. Appendix 1, Profit and Dividend History, pp.85-86; Appendix 2, A Brief History of the Major Elements of the W R Carpenter Group in Australia…, pp.87-91; Appendix 3, Extracts from correspondence between J M Hedstrom and W R Carpenter, 1920-1922, following takeover of W R Carpenter & Co Ltd by Morris Hedstrom Ltd, pp.92-97.

The Tuimaleali'ifano title is one of the four princely titles in Samoa.

Legal documents and some related material concerning cases in 1949, 1976 and 1977 in the Land and Titles Court of Western Samoa re disputes on succession of the Tuimaleali'ifano title. <P><b>See reel list for further details</b>

Fisheries research in Papua New Guinea began in the 1920s with the Archbold expeditions and expanded during the thirty years following Schuster's 1950 Report of a survey of the inland fisheries of the Territory of Papua New Guinea. During the 1970s and 1980s there was a further increase in fisheries research and development in Papua New Guinea.<BR><P>The Fisheries Division of the Department of Agriculture was established in 1954. The Research and Surveys Branch of the Fisheries Division was formed in 1968 with its headquarters at Kanudi Fisheries Research Station, Port Moresby. A PNG Collection of research materials was established by the Research and Surveys Branch in its Library at Kanudi. The PNG Collection includes the P Series of research papers, both published and unpublished, survey material and some adminstrative reports documenting PNG fisheries research from 1948 till 1986 which were selected and arranged by John Lock, a scientist at Kanudi, in 1986.<BR>Further NFA research papers have been microfilmed at PMB 1118.

PNG Collection of Fisheries Research Papers (P Series), Nos. 778. <P><B>See reel list for further details</B>

French Marists first reached the Solomon Islands in 1845. A decade on, the losses of this expedition were great: San Cristobel, Woodlark, Umboi and Tikopia had all been abandoned; nine missionaries were dead. Under the auspices of the Oceania Marist Province, missionaries re-entered the Solomon Islands in May 1898. Apolostic Vicariates were established in the North and South Solomons and a Vicariate of the Western Solomons was established in 1960. After 1967 the Vicariats became known as Dioceses.<BR>Catholic development was directed from the Mission Station at Visale Station, Guadalcanal, before World War II, and from Honiara after the war. Though the Marist Fathers stayed at their posts during the war many records were detroyed and surviving records were subsequently decimated by mould and termites. See aslo the Mission journal, Na Turupatu, 1911-1958, 1970-1971, at PMB Doc 423 and Oceania Marist Provincial archives re North and South Solomons at OMPA 361-400.

Diocesan correspondence with the following Mission Stations:<BR>Ata'a/Ususue 1957-1967<BR> Malageti 1953-1971<BR> Tarapaina 1950-1970<BR>Ata'a land 1961-1973<BR> Makina 1971-1974 <BR>Rohinari 1972-1974<BR>Avu Avu 1946-1981<BR> Makina Marau District <BR>1952-1977<BR> Tsuva 1964-1970<BR>King George VI School<BR> 1951-1954 Manivovo<BR> 1949-1967<BR> Visale 1948-1953, 1961-1969<BR>Buma 1927, 1947-1982<BR>Rokera 1946-1968<BR>Wanoni Bay 1945-1970<BR>Buma land 1946-1981<BR>Ruavatu 1944-1977<BR>Yandina 1963-1970<BR>Dala 1950-1976 (gaps)<BR>Tangarare 1943-1968<BR><P>Together with correspondence held by theWanoni Bay Mission Station, 1905-1957, and a box file labelled World War II, and history and customs.<P><b>See reel list for further details</b>

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>.

Alan Ward is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Newcastle, NSW and contract historian for the Waitangi Tribunal, New Zealand. His Master's thesis was on the East Coast Maori Trust, in the Gisborne region of New Zealand's North Island where he was born and raised. During this research Ward became interested in customary Maori land tenure and its conversion to forms of title cognisable in the New Zealand courts and intended to facilitate land transfer and economic development. This interest lead to subsequent research on land tenure in the Pacific islands, particularly in New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea and to employment in land administration in the latter two countries. Emeritus Professor Ward is the author of a number of books on land issues in PNG, New Caledonia and New Zealand, the most recent being <I>An Unsettled History: Treaty Claims in New Zealand Today</I> (Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1999).

Almost half of this record group is concerned with PNG. These papers were gathered when Ward was Lecturer in History at the University of Papua New Guinea and adviser to the Land Evaluation and Demarcation Project Study (LEAD). The collection includes correspondence, notes, articles and papers, draft legislation and press cuttings. A small portion of these papers relate to politics and land matters in Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Africa, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Banaba, French Polynesia and Guadeloupe. The remainder of the documents are mainly concerned with New Caledonia between 1947 and 1990 and were assembled by Ward at La Trobe University, Melbourne, through the 1980s, particularly during the years of political uncertainty in the French Territory from 1984 to 1990. <b>The complete, two hundred page calender of microfilmed documents held in the Alan Ward papers is available. <a href=http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/reels/manuscripts/PMB1168full.rtf> [rtf format]</a>, <a href=http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/reels/manuscripts/PMB1168full.pdf> [pdf format]</a> </b>
<b>See reel list of file titles for a shorter summary</b>.

Laurie Bragge, who was a Patrol Officer in New Guinea from 1961, was posted to the West Sepik Distict from time to time where he collected these documents.

Aitape District patrol reports, 1944-45; Sepik District and Sub-District monthly and patrol reports, 1945; Aitape District Office and Sub-District monthly reports, native labour report, sing-sing report, 1945-46; Aitape Sub-District monthly and quarterly reports 1946-57; Vanimo Patrol Post monthly and quarterly reports, 1946-62; Aitape Sub-District correspondence, 1945-48; notations from Aotei Village Book, 1939-45; miscellaneous printed material. See Finding aids for details.

In June 1973, as Professor of Human Geography in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the ANU, Gerry Ward wrote W. F. Straatmans, a field researcher in Papua New Guinea, instructing him to carry out interviews with Danny Leahy and Jack Fox who were amongst the first Europeans in the Highlands of New Guinea. Pim Straatmans had had long personal relationships with both interviewees.
The interviewees recall pre-War and War-time conditions and tell stories regarding transport, airstrip construction, native labour, gold digging methods, sing sings in the Highlands, Edie Creek, Maprik, Bena Bena, Wewak and Sepik regions, including Danny Leahy's account of rescuing nuns and priests from Catholic mission stations on the Sepik during the War. They remark on some of Danny Leahy's photographs, recalling the deaths of Fr Mauschhauser and Br Eugene in the Chimbu, contact with Fr Van Baar, Fr Ross and Fr Schaefer, and the rivalry between the Catholic and Lutheran missions. They comment on the kiaps Robert Melrose and Jim Taylor and on the hanging of Ludy Schmidt in Rabaul.
In the transcript of a further interview with Chris Ashton of the ABC, Jack Fox, who had been in New Guinea with the Australian occupation forces in 1914, recalls the expedition and German resistance.

Transcripts of Pim Straatmans' interview with Jack Fox and Danny Leahy, November 1973, and Chris Ahton's interview with Jack Fox, also in 1973, together with related papers and a photograph of Jack Fox. See Finding aids for details.

Robert Melrose was born in Hay, NSW, on 5 April 1890. He served as a Telegraphist in the Royal Australian Navy on HMAS Yarra in New Guinea waters. He joined the civil administration of the Mandated territory of New Guinea as a Patrol Officer on 9 May 1921. He served initially as an Assistant District Officer to Colonel John Walstab in Kavieng, New Ireland, 1921-1924, than became District Officer at Manus 1924-1926, Aitape 1926-1931, Kavieng 1931-1933, Rabaul and Salamaua until 1936/37, and then at Rabaul till late 1941, when the Department of District Services and Native Affairs was transferred to Lae with the Administrator. At that time Robert Melrose was Assistant Director, then Director, of the Department.
Robert Melrose returned to the Territory after the War as Government Secretary based in Port Moresby. He sufferred a massive heart attack and returned to Australia in April 1949. During his retirement, Melrose served on a Committee interviewing applicants for government posts in PNG and also served as Honorary Secretary/Treasurer of the newly formed Retired Officers Association of PNG till his death in September 1959.
<BR><P>(Note by Geoff Melrose.)

In January 1942 two parties evacuated Lae and Salamaua in front of the appoaching Japanese forces. One group of young fit people, led by Nick Penglase, went via Wau, Waria valley to Buna and Kokoda. The remaining group of 34, led by Robert Melrose, travelled by pinnace and canoe to Morobe and Buna and then overland to Kokoda.
<BR>Diary of escape from Salamaua, Territory of New Guinea. Ms (faint pencil and pen), 22 Jan-19 Feb 1942
<BR>Transcript of diary, 22 Jan-19 Feb 1942, by Geoffrey Melrose. Ms., p/c.
<BR>Notebook and letterbook (letters-out), Apr-Jul 1941, Feb 1942
<BR>Notebook: list of personnel, stores, provisions and expenditure, n.d.

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>