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Papua New Guinea Collection With digital objects
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Papua Territory Anthropological Reports

  • AU PMB DOC 303
  • Collection
  • 1921-1923

Includes 5 printed reports which appeared as a numbered series.

Nos 1. & 2.: Report on the Suau-Tawala Anthropology of the South-Eastern Division and part of the Eastern Division of Papua - W.E. Armstrong
No. 3.: Collection of Curios and the Preservation of Native Culture - F.E. Williams
No. 4.: The Vailala Madness and the Destruction of Native Ceremonies in the Gulf Division - F.E. Williams
No. 5.: Animistic and Other Spiritualistic Beliefs of the Bina tribe, Western Papua (reprinted from Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. LI, July-December 1921) - A.P. Lyons

Papua Territory

The Times of Papua New Guinea

  • AU PMB DOC 516
  • Collection
  • 12 September 1980 – 31 December 1982

‘The Times of Papua New Guinea’ newspaper (also ‘The Times’ and ‘The Times of PNG’) was launched in September 1980 and ran until 1995. It was published by Word Publishing Company, Boroko, Port Moresby. Franz Albert Joku was editor from 1980-1995. Published on Fridays from 1980, a second edition, ‘The Mid Week Times’ was introduced on Tuesdays from August 1982. This run is from September 1980-December 1982 only.

In May 1995, it was rebranded ‘The Saturday Independent’ and later ‘The Independent’.

Word Publishing Company

Papua New Guinea Cocoa Board Publications

  • AU PMB DOC 538
  • Collection
  • 1979-1997

The Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea was first established under the Cocoa Act 1974 and was then known as the Cocoa Marketing Board of Papua New Guinea. The Act was revised in 1981 and the name changed to the Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea.

The main functions of the PNG Cocoa Board are to control and regulate the growing, processing, marketing and export of cocoa beans; establish price stabilization, price equalization and stockholding arrangements within the cocoa industry, promote the consumption of Papua New Guinea cocoa beans and cocoa products; promote research and development programmes for the benefit of the PNG cocoa industry; and carry out the obligations of the State under any international agreement relating to cocoa.

The PNG Cocoa Board also collects statistics on PNG Cocoa production, documented PNG cocoa exports, researched international cocoa farming and production practices and distributed educational material to New Guinea farmers on best practice farming methods for cocoa production. The PNG Cocoa Board produced publications and booklets, often in English and Pidgin and sometimes Motu, on various aspects relating to cocoa production.

This collection includes a selection of publications produced by the Papua New Guinea Cocoa Board (1979-1996). It includes Annual Reports (1979-1989), Board meeting papers (1985-1993), administrative, marketing and research papers (1982-1996), statistical reports (1990-1996), market reports (1992-1997), publications by the PNG Cocoa and Coconut Research Institute (1986-1992), manuals and reports from the Cocoa Quality Improvement Project (1987-1993) and other publications on cocoa production and distribution and PNG agriculture in general (1980-1993).

PNG Cocoa most likely came from Samoa in the early 20th Century. In 1844 Germany annexed New Guinea and took large numbers of New Guinea labourers to work on German plantations in Samoa. By 1900 there were well established shipping routes between Samoa and New Guinea. It is likely that a German company based in Samoa transported cocoa seedlings to New Guinea on the boats used for recruiting and returning New Guinea labourers.

Cocoa was primarily grown on plantations until WWII in New Guinea. From the early 1950s cocoa was developed as a smallholder crop and a plantation cop. The most extensive early development was in the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain. Other early cocoa plantations were in North Solomons and the Northern District (Oro Province).

In the early 21st Century, cocoa continues to be the most important export cash crop of smallholder farmers in the wet lowlands. Over 90% of PNG cocoa is produced by smallholders. Many Papua New Guinea women participate in cocoa farming and production in PNG. Although PNG contributes less than 2% to the world cocoa market it has established an international reputation for quality, attracting 90% of a premium for fine and flavor cocoa.

Resources: http://www.cocoaboard.org.pg/

Papua New Guinea Cocoa Board

Newsletters of the Australian School of Pacific Administration and Territory of Papua Reports

  • AU PMB DOC 546
  • Collection
  • September 1946 - September 1950

This collection consists of newsletters of the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) from September 1946 - September 1950. The 'Monthly Notes' newsletter ran from September 1946 (Vol.1, No.1) - August 1947 (Vol.1, No.12). There is also a Monthly Notes Index. In September 1947, the newsletter name changed to 'South Pacific', which ran until 1959. This set of newsletters was collected by ASOPA student Carl Franke, who served as a cadet agriculturalist in the Territory of Papua-New Guinea in 1947-1948 (see PMB MS 1445). This collection also includes miscellaneous Territory of Papua reports collected by Franke.

This collection includes:

  • 'Monthly Notes', Vol.1 - Vol.1, No.12; September 1946 - August 1947
  • 'Monthly Notes Index', September 1946 - August 1947
  • 'South Pacific', Vol.2 - Vol.4, No.9; September 1947 - August/September 1950. Incomplete: Vol.4, No.7;June 1950 was not available for digitisation.
  • 'South Pacific Law Review (Supplement to South Pacific), Vol.1, No.1 - Vol.1, No.8; July 1948-June 1950
  • Territory of Papua. Lands, Surveys and Forestry. (ID 1609/27)
  • Territory of Papua. Economic Geology and Mining. (ID 1610/27)

The Australian School of Pacific Administration

A brief sketch of the fate of 3000 Indian pows in New Guinea

  • AU PMB MS 1249
  • Collection
  • 1943-1945

Captain Singh, of the Dogra regiment, relates that the Indians "left Singapore on 5 May 1943 in seven parties each consisting of about 600 - three of the parties went to New Britain and the other four came to New Guinea", ie. Wewak.

Professor Hank Nelson gave the PMB a cover note on Singh's 'Brief Sketch', as follows: "Singh wrote another brief account of his time in New Guinea as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, 'The Experiences of an Indian Prisoner of War in New Guinea", The Infantry Journal, Vol.1, No.1, July 1949, pp.56-62. In the journal article he notes that the 'irony of fate reached its climax' when of the eleven Indians who survived with the Japanese until the end of the War, nine were put on an aircraft to fly them out of New Guinea and it crashed, killing all nine. Singh, who was not on the flight, was then the only survivor. From the 3,000 Indians originally landed in the Sepik in May 1943 another 191 had survived, liberated by advancing Australians before the end of the War. One of these men, Sepoy Bachan Singh, provided evidence for the Tokyo War Crimes Trials."

Professor Nelson adds that “a copy of Chint Singh’s reminiscences written in Wewak is in the UPNG Library and (I think) the Australian War Memorial.”

The document is a roneoed typescript, 61ppp., dated 4 Nov 1945. It was passed to the PMB by Professor Donald Denoon, who worked at the University of Papua New Guinea. At the time, the author was unable to be contacted. The author's son, Narinder Parmar, has since been identified.

Singh, Chint

The Mystery of Guise: Conflict between missionaries, colonial administrators and foreign traders during the British New Guinea Protectorate: a biography of Reginald Edward Guise.

  • AU PMB MS 1288
  • Collection
  • c.1998

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.

Oram, Nigel D.

Reminiscences of voyages in the Pacific Ocean

  • AU PMB MS 1342
  • Collection
  • 1860s

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.

Martin, Alfred William

Ombisusu stories

  • AU PMB MS 1413
  • Collection
  • 1969

Joanne Wodak worked as a Tutor then Senior Tutor in literature at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1968-1970. This collection is the result of research conducted in Ombisusu in the latter part of the first half of 1969. It consists of stories by inhabitants of Ombisusu that were mostly translated into English, some left in the original language, and written down or typed by the researcher after recording them on tape. The aim of collecting stories was to keep them for the benefit of the children of Ombisusu villagers and for other people in Papua New Guinea. The collection contains origin stories, history stories and clan stories.

Wodak, Joanne.

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