Dr and Mrs Miller were missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand on the Island of Tongoa in Vanuatu from 1941 to 1947 when Miller became principal of the Tangoa Teachers Training Institute on Tangoa Island (as opposed to Tongoa Island in the Shepherd Group) just off the coast of Santo Island. In 1952 the Millers took a parish in Auckland, New Zealand, returning to Tangoa in 1971 to set up the Presbyterian Bible College. They left the New Hebrides/Vanuatu in 1973.

The material on this reel is presented in two parts: Part I, The Tongaon Dictionary and Part II, Languages of the Central Islands. The Dictionary, which is incomplete, was compiled during field service (1941-73). Miller describes the dictionary as colloquial rather than ecclesiastical, making use of material produced by the Reverends Oscar Michelsen and Peter Milne, missionaries in the New Hebrides in the late 1800s. Much of the explanatory material in the dictionary is in Tongoan. Part II begins with a grammar and word list for the Makatea language (Polynesian) of Emae and continues with brief grammars of four of the seven dialects of Efatese identified by Miller:<BR>Lelepa (Efate)<BR> Erakor (Efate)<BR>Emau (Efatese) and Epau-Fuari (Eastern Efatese). Miller has provided a detailed introduction to the dictionary and to each of the grammars in Part II.