Author/editor of a number of publicaitons on the Gilbert Islands, including <I>An Anthology of Gilbertese oral tradition</I> (Suva, USP, 1994), Maude was the British colonial administrator in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, 1929-48. For further biographical details see PMB 1057.

1. The Genealogical Book of the Royal Family of Abemama. 98 page handwritten copy from the Genealogical Book of Paul I. Simon (1916), copied by John R. Tokatake on Kuria Island, 1960. Written in Gilbertese, this copy was sent to Maude by the Catholic priest Father Ernest Sabatier in 1964.
2. Circular notices, mostly addressed to village chiefs of the Gilbert Islands, from the Japanese Department of Civil Administration in the Gilberts, October 1942-May 1943. Written by Miyoshi, the District Officer and Resident Commissioner who was based on Uma, these 35 notices are mostly single page typescripts in the Gilbertese language. The original notices are accompanied by typescript English translations carried out by Reid Cowell in 1970.

After graduating from Manchester University, Roy Davies joined the British Overseas Civil Service in 1944. He served first as a cadet with the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, and later became a Solomon Islands District Commissioner on Malaita. From 1957 to 1962 he was Secretary of the Government of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. He retired in 1972.

A 368 page typescript with mss corrections, footnotes, index and maps, c. 1970. Divided into 43 chapters, with an introduction, this manuscript gives the author's reminiscences of the Masina Rule Movement in the Solomon Islands during the years 1944-47. Based on contemporary notes recorded in his personal diary and on other personal papers from the time, Davies constructs an account of Masina rule from the viewpoint of the British colonial administrators.

Also included on this reel is a 45 page typescript by Davies entitled 'The Marching Rule and the British Solomon Islands Government', dated April 1980.

Maurice Myles Witts was born in Bombala, NSW in 1877 and died in Moss Vale, NSW in 1966. During 1899-1900 he worked for the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. in Fiji. In 1900 he enlisted in the Mounted Rifles and fought in the Boer War, after which he was discharged as a Sergeant in 1902. In 1904 he moved to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides where he established a coconut plantation at Hog Harbour. In 1904 he married Mabel Herring (born Sydney, 1877) on Santo. The Witts returned to Australia about 1913. See PMB 1 and PMB 8 for diaries of Maurice Witts, 1905 and 1911.

1. Diary of Mabel Witts, 7 February to 4 November 1909. Describes daily life at Hog Harbour, including the birth of daughter Helen in October 1909.<BR>2. Family correspondence, business and other documents, 1900-17, 1931, 1941, 1968. Includes personal and official letters, printed material and other papers documenting inter alia: Maurice Witts' work in Fiji, 1900; Boer War service, 1902; planting activities on Santo, 1905; membership of the Legion of Frontiersmen, 1906-7; marriage in 1907; appointment as a police constable, 1911; and purchase of property at Wyong, NSW, 1911. Also includes letters from Witts to daughter Betty, 1931 and wife Mabel, 1941 and a letter from a firm of Port Vila Solicitors to Mrs Betty Tyler of Moss Vale re the ownership of Lathu Island off Hogg Harbour, 1968.<BR>3. Four family photographs: Mabel, c.1883 and c.1904; Maurice, 1956; and a group portrait of Maurice and two others, c.1905.<BR>4. Printed map of Espiritu Santo with pencil annotations, n.d.

Hilda Steadman was the wife of Reverend W. Rex Steadman, who worked as a Methodist Minister in Fiji beteen 1912 and 1940. During their time in Fiji the Steadmans devoted themselves to working with the Indian community. Between 1912 and 1920 they were based at Navua, from 1920 to 1926 they ran the Indian Mission Church and Boys' School at Toorak (Suva), during 1926/27 they worked at Lautoka, after which they returned to Australia for five years. In 1932 they returned to Fiji and spent the next eight years at Rewa organising the Methodist Indian educational system. During her time in Fiji Hilda founded the Indian Women's Benevolent Society. In 1940 the Steadmans retired to South Australia.

The papers include the following items:

• letter by Hilda to her parents written from Naduri, Vanua Levu, 17/10/20 (10p.)
• newspaper clippings, 1920-41 Indian work in Fiji, mss, 6p.
• Navua, 1912, typescript, 3p.
• The Rewa sojourn, t/s, 3p.
• Medical work in Fiji, mss, 6p.
• Welfare work among the women of Fiji, t/s, 5p.
• Reminiscences of Mrs A.J. Small (wife of Methodist Missionary in Fiji) t/s 25p.
• obituary for Mrs Steadman, 1975
• 214 photographs, 1913-40, depicting the following: the work of the Methodist Church in Fiji, students, colleagues, friends and family of the Steadmans, members of the Indo-Fijian community, scenes in various parts of Fiji. Most photographs are identified.

Eastman and his wife Winifred (nee Grimwade, married 1914) ran the London Missionary Society Mission in Rarotonga from 1913 to 1918 and the LMS Gilbert Islands Mission from 1918 to 1947. The Gilbert Islands Mission, which was based at Rongorongo on the island of Beru included the Ellice Islands, Nauru, Ocean Island and the Phoenix Islands. Eastman, who was awarded an OBE in 1946, retired to Swanage, Dorset in 1949. For further information see Norman Goodall, A History of the London Missionary Society, 1895-1945 (OUP, 1954) <BR>and John Garrett, Ways across the ocean in Bernard Thorogood (ed.), Gales of Change: responding to a shifting missionary context: the story of the London Missionary Society, 1945-77 (Geneva, 1994) pp.188-190. See also PMB 478 for Eastman's Rarotongan-English Dictionary, 1918.

Reel 1: Personal correspondence, 1914-69.
Reel 2: Cook Islands - newsclippings, typescripts and pamphlets, 1914-18.
Mss of Notes on Rarotongan Grammar, 1913.
Personal notebook, 1918-46.
Gilbert Islands Mission reports and newsletters, 1918-47.
Reel 3: Gilbert Islands Mission financial and administrative papers, 1918-50 and papers on education, 1922-48.
Reel 4: Sermons in English and Gilbertese: Old Testament, 1917-47, New Testament, 1918-22.
Reel 5: Sermons - New Testament, 1923-44.
Reel 6: Sermons - New Testament, 1945-47 (undated sermons at end of sequence)
Reels 6-7: Research material on the history, culture and flora of the Gilbert Islands, including mss and typescript extracts and transcripts from other sources, printed and roneoed documents, notes, drafts and maps.
Reel 7: 1922 mss transcript/revision of an English/Gilbertese vocubulary originally compiled by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Reels 7-8: Mss working draft of an English Gilbertese vocabulary assembled by Eastman.
Reel 8: 1948 typescript draft of Eastman's published English/Gilbertese vocabulary. 170 photographs taken in the Cook Islands and the Gilbert Islands.
Reels 8-11: 48 books and pamphlets printed in Samoa and the Gilbert Islands, 1892-1978. 38 of these publications are in Gilbertese, three are in Rarotongan and the remainder are in English. A complete inventory of publications filmed is available.

See Finding aids for details.

Born on the island of Matuku in the Lau group, Fiji, Tuilovoni trained as a teacher in Suva in the 1930s. After teaching at the Methodist Primary School on Bau, he decided to become a Methodist minister. From 1947 to 1950 he studied at Drew Theological Seminary in New Jersey where he gained a Bachelor of Divinity. On his return to Fiji he was appointed Principal of the Bible School at Davuilevu and Director of the Young People's Department of the Methodist Church, a position he held until 1967. Between 1961 and 1963 he studied for a Master of Sacred Theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. In 1964 he was appointed first President of the newly created Fiji Methodist Conference. Upon the completion of his Presidential term in 1967 he was appointed Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, a position he held until 1972 when he was reappointed as President of the Methodist Conference. In 1978 he moved to Sydney to serve as Associate State Secretary for the Board of Missions in the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. He ended his career doing parish work in Wellington, New South Wales. He died in Sydney in 1983.

The Tuilovini papers, which are written in a mixture of English and Fijian, were arranged by Tevita Baleiwaqa in 1987 into the following series:

Reel 1:

1. Miscellaneous correspondence, 1947-75
2. Correspondence re Ecumenism, 1961-68
3. Academic transcript, Drew University, NJ
4. Writings (roneoed and printed), 1948-63
5. Methodist Young People's Department, 1951-63
6. Correspondence and other papers re Wesley F. Pigeon and Inez Hames, 1946-50 and 1982-87

Reel 2:

7. Church and Unity in the South Pacific, STM Thesis, Union Theological Seminary, 1962
8. Typescript sermons, 1952-83 (bulk 1969-83)
9. Church music and hymns, 1960s-82 (bulk 1978-82)
10. Notebooks (2), 1971-72
11. Diary, 1975

Reel 3:

12. Very detailed diary, 1982 (in Fijian)
13. Correspondence and printed material re Setareki's time in Australia, 1979-83
14. Devotional material for Sydney house groups (roneoed and typescript), c.1980-82
15. Transcripts of oral history interviews about Tuilovoni conducted by Tevita Baleiwaqa, 1986
16. Setareki Akeai Tuilovoni and the Young People's Department of the Methodist Church in Fiji (1951-1967) by Tevita Baleiwaqa, Bachelor of Divininty Thesis, Pacific Theological College, 1987

Records of shipping and aircraft arrivals and departures. Each record consists of a one line entry giving such details as date, the name of the vessel, its master, its tonnage and its destination or point of origin.

Items on Pacific Islands from the minutes and reports of the annual general conferences (1879-1964) of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Missionaries and the Church were active in French Polynesia at the time, including Tahiti, Tubuai, and the Tuamotu Islands, as well as being active in the Hawaiian Islands, Samoa and Tonga.