The papers in the collection relate to the Paton family and their missionary service in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) from 1858-2011. The papers include correspondence, journals, reports, lectures, circulars and photographs from that describe the early missions and the Paton family's involvement in establishing the Presbyterian Church in the New Hebrides. The papers describe and include information on family and personal life, finances, the work of the mission such as the education of local Ni-Vanuatu at the Tangoa Teachers' Training Institute and the establishment of Constitution of Synod. Also included in this collection is a slideshow of mission work most likely used to garner general and financial support for the mission work. Isobel Paton filed these papers by person and continued to add to these collections with newspaper clippings and other articles related to the work of the Paton family in Vanuatu.
Some local information included in this collection are: a local legend on the origin of yam, volcanic eruption on Lopevi Island on November 1, 1939 and some correspondence from Wilfred Paton to David Bule in local language.

Alfred William Martin (1844-1928) was born in Clarence Plains, Tasmania, first son of William Martin (1805/6-1878), a convict transported to Tasmania, and Hannah Braim (1825/6-1860). Alfred William Martin was educated at Kettering Grammar School in Northamptonshire while his parents were revisiting England. Returning to Tasmania, Martin became a seaman, despite his good education, firstly on the ship Gem sailing out of Hobart and then, while still in his teens, on a whaler, Southern Cross, Capt. Mansfield, sailing out of Hobart to whaling grounds off New Zealand, NSW, and the New Hebrides. He then sailed on the Thomas Brown, Capt T.H. Brown, a freighter working between Melbourne and Adelaide. Subsequently Martin sailed a schooner, Jeannie Darling, 80 tons, owner Darling formerly a boat builder in Hobart, carrying timber and other goods between Melbourne and Schnapper Point (Mornington).

In Melbourne Martin joined the crew of a Brigantine, El Zéfiro (300 tons, Callao), Capt Manuel Diaz Garcias of Peru, smuggling opium to the China trade via Gilolo Island, Surigao and Manila; smoking bêche-de-mer at Ponape; trading in the Marshalls, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji; trading for sandalwood in the New Hebrides; sailing onwards through the Banks Islands, Santa Cruz, San Christobal, Malaita, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and back to Manila via the Moluccas and Celebes. El Zéfiro then sailed for Bougainville, reinforced with Bougainville warriors carried out a blackbirding raid in Aoba (Ambae) in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), then sailed on to South America, touching at the Marquesas and Galapagos Islands, selling the New Hebridean slaves at Mollendo in Peru.

Alfred William Martin gave the manuscript to his granddaughter, Clara Ella Simm (b.1897), who he had brought up as a child after her father, William Simm (1855-1901), died in a flu epidemic in Launceston. When Dr Macnicol received the manuscript from his mother, via his sister, it was in a bundle tied with string. Dr Macnicol passed the manuscript to a conservator who repaired torn and fragmented pages. Dr Macnicol top-numbered the pages consecutively in pencil and transcribed the manuscript. He passed the transcript to Rafael Pintos-Lopez of Michelago, near Canberra, who submitted the transcript to Professor Brij Lal for assessment.

Untitled incomplete manuscript written by Alfred William Martin of Tasmania, written possibly in the 1890s relating his Pacific voyages and adventures in the 1860s, Ms. (gaps), re-paginated, pp.1-202; together with transcript of the manuscript made by Dr Peter Macnicol, Ts., pp.1-251.
See Finding aids for details.

This collection includes a significant sequence of journals covering Peter Milne's early years and ministry training, before giving an extended account of the mission in the New Hebrides at Nguna (Hocken Collections MS-0432/16 to MS-0432/23). They differ from the diaries in that they are written later as a more considered narrative, rather than daily notes. There are several numbered volumes, with consecutive pagination.

The Rev. Peter Milne (1834-1924) was born in Scotland and went to the New Hebrides as a Presbyterian Missionary in 1869. After a brief stay on Erromanga, he established himself at Nguna on Efate, where he remained, except for short breaks, for the rest of his life.

There are 33 letters. The first four were written in New Zealand, and all but one of the rest from the New Hebrides - mainly Nguna.

Farquhar, a farmer of Maryborough, Queensland, visited New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands and New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in the schooner 'City of Melbourne' in November 1870 to January 1871 to recruit Pacific Islander labourers for himself and other farmers in Maryborough. He made a second voyage to New Caledonia, the New Hebrides and Banks Islands in the schooner Petrel in September 1871-January 1872 as a government agent under the Polynesian Labourers' Act of 1868.

Description of the two voyages mentioned above.