Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Newsletter
Series 5, No. 17
June 2004
Room 4201, Coombs Building (9)
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Ph: (612) 6125 2521; Fax: (612) 6125 0198; Email:
pambu@coombs.anu.edu.au
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/
Contents
Pambu News
Vale Robert Adrian Langdon
Graeme Powell, A Naval Officer in
the Pacific: the Journal of James Hay
Marian Hanley, Microfilm Training
Program
Anita Katzinger, Spaniards, Portuguese
and the Pacific: Sources
PARBICA 10, Wellington, New Zealand, 21-26 July 2003
Pacific Phosphate
Records on Microfilm
Recent PMB Microfilm Short
Titles
The past 12 months has been a sombre period for the Bureau as two of
its stalwart supporters have died: Bob Langdon, the Bureau’s renowned
founding Executive Officer, and Peter Grimshaw, former Business Manager
of the Research School, long-term Treasurer of the Bureau and old-hand
of the Pacific. My colleague, Jones George of the FSM Archives, also
died earlier this year. They are all badly missed.
Reflecting on the passing of our colleagues, some of the Bureau’s
activities during this period have focused on identification and
preservation of Pacific Islands research records. Bob Langdon left a
massive archive amounting to 136 archives boxes most of which have been
transferred to the National Library of Australia.
Dorothy Crozier’s papers documenting her research work in Tonga and
Fiji, as well as her administration of the Central Archives of Fiji and
the Western Pacific, have now been
microfilmed by the Bureau. Crozier’s collection of Shirley and Beatrice
Baker’s Tongan papers have also been arranged and microfilmed.
Sir Colin Allan’s papers on the Solomons and Vanuatu, largely also a
research collection, have now been arranged and listed, and are being
microfilmed at present.
The Bureau also worked on the arrangement, disposition and, in some
cases, microfilming of
the following Pacific research papers:
• Richard Thurnwald’s New Guinea and Solomons
linguistic research materials,
• Don Laycock’s linguistic materials;
• Dorothy Shineberg’s papers;
• James Jupp’s papers on Vanuatu,
• Robert Norton’s papers and audio recordings on
politics in Fiji in the 1960s-1970s;
• Rev. Neville Threlfall’s papers on the history of
New Britain;
• Stan Wigley’s papers on tuberculosis in PNG;
• Documents collected by Jack Golson on the
development of cultural policy in PNG;
• Ric Shand’s papers on rural economic development in
PNG;
• Ian Hossack’s papers on education and training in
PNG leading up to independence.
The Bureau has now finished microfilming an extensive series of
correspondence files of the Pacific Phosphate Co Ltd and its
predecessors, 1892-1919, on loan from the National Archives of
Australia, amounting to 94 rolls of microfilm. (See report on p.10.)
Private papers of the family of J.T. Arundel, held by Mr Anthony Aris
in London, were microfilmed for the Bureau earlier this year thanks to
the help of Natalie Owen.
The archives of Greenpeace New Zealand were surveyed in Auckland and
some rare Pacific scientific serials were located in the Mt Albert
Research Library of Hort Research Ltd.
Further Pacific scientific serials were microfilmed at the CSIRO Black
Mountain Library in Canberra.
Papers of the Indo-Fijian politician, Jai Ram Reddy, and two former PNG
Patrol Officers, Gavin Carter and Norman Wilson, were transferred to
the Bureau for microfilming.
George Clarke of Sydney kindly lent the Bureau his consultancy papers
on the physical development of Funafuti, 1973-1993, for microfilming.
PMB microfilms of Grant McCall’s Rapanui press cuttings, 1972-2002,
have been successfully digitised and are available on CD.
The PMB Management Committee held its first teleconference in Canberra
in December 2003. An agreed increase in the annual subscription rate
has improved the Bureau’s funding situation although sales of PMB
microfilms, which supplement the Bureau’s operational costs, have been
moderate. After some delay 95 rolls of microfilm made in 2003 have been
finally despatched to the PMB members this month.
* * *
VALE ROBERT ADRIAN LANGDON
(1924-2003)
Bob Langdon died suddenly following a heart attack on 26 September,
aged 79. He had an unusual combination of talents which he applied with
boundless energy and enthusiasm as a traveller, adventurer, journalist,
writer, archivist and scholar. He was a romantic spirit enthralled by
literature, languages, strange lands and exotic people. Tall, with a
straight back, sporting a trim moustache, neatly attired, Bob had the
air of an amiable conquistador. One of his most significant quests was
to find and preserve Pacific Islands archives and manuscripts.
Bob was brought up in Adelaide. He had Scottish/Cornish ancestry from
his mother and his father was of German/Danish extraction. (His
grandfather, Julius Meincke, changed his name by deed poll to Langdon
in 1917 in response to anti-German sentiment in South Australia during
World War I.) His first job in 1941 was in the South Australian Births,
Marriages and Deaths Department, a Dickensian institution, dubbed by
the staff as “Hatch, Match and Dispatch”, where the clerks used pen and
ink to write out birth certificates. Bob recalled sitting on high
wooden stools to consult musty leather-bound ledgers stored in a
dungeon, the oldest dating back to 1842. The fluid wartime situation
hastened Bob’s promotion from office junior to registrar.
Bob enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy at 18. He had no intention of
returning to the registry but the record keeping was useful in his
later archival pursuits. Already determined to become a writer, Bob
read English classics and continued his voracious reading during his
naval postings by frequenting the School of Arts Library in Cairns and
the NSW Public Library in Sydney. He developed an interest in
languages, learning to speak Spanish fluently, and became familiar with
a number of romance languages.
When Bob was discharged from the Navy in 1946 he determined to travel
to South America but could not find a berth. Focusing on writing
instead, he moved between Sydney where he worked in the Public Library
and Canberra where he was the sole reader at the National Library, and
published his first article, on a 19th century escapade in Bolivian
politics. He then retreated to Bungendore to write and to work on a
translation of a Spanish novel. However, he was driven out by the cold
and gave up freelance journalism. Back in Sydney he was shanghaied as a
non-union fireman on the Nymphe, a black-listed Panamanian registered
freighter, bound for Liverpool. The ship took three months to reach
Penang, via Lautoka, Labasa, Suva, Port Moresby and Singapore, where
the crew struck and were paid-off. Sailing on to London as a paying
passenger Bob eventually landed a job; this was as secretary to a
tin-mine manager in Bolivia, where he spent three years, between 1948
and 1951. He travelled extensively in South America and Spain during
1951-52. His account of these adventures, in the manner of Peter
Pinney’s Dust on my Shoes, was published in his autobiography, Every
Goose a Swan (1995).
Working his way back in 1952 from Vancouver to Auckland as a watchman
on the Union Steamship Company’s Wairuna, Bob experienced Tahiti’s
magic spell. Back in Australia he worked as a reporter on The Adelaide
Advertiser, including several sessions during 1954-55 in the Federal
Parliamentary press gallery, and researched his history of Tahiti,
Island of Love, first published in London in 1959, that had five
editions. As a journalist with the Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM),
1962-67, he travelled extensively in the Islands on assignments
producing investigative articles, many on obscure aspects of Pacific
history using primary and secondary sources. Articles by Langdon and
Stuart Inder, published in PIM and New Guinea, drew attention to the
appalling history of the phosphate leases on Banaba (Ocean Island);
these exposed sub-standard living conditions of Banabans exiled to Rabi
Island after Banaba had been mined out. It was in the PIM, too, that
Bob first published his account of the marooned Spanish sailors on
Amanu in the Tuamotu Islands. This discovery became the basis of his
studies of European castaways in the Pacific Islands, prior to Captain
Cook, which appeared in his two books, The Lost Caravel (1975), and The
Lost Caravel Revisited (1988).
Bob’s reputation as a Pacific specialist was well established when in
1968 he was appointed the foundation executive officer of the Pacific
Manuscripts Bureau (PMB) in the Research School of Pacific Studies at
the Australian National University (ANU). The Research School was a
unique undertaking, inaugurated after World War II to pioneer Pacific
Islands research. Bob was recruited by Harry Maude who had been
transferred to the Department of Pacific History from the South Pacific
Commission where, as director of the social development section, he had
carried out a preservation microfilming program in the late 1950s. The
Department of Pacific History had already taken several archival
initiatives. It had helped support Phyllis Mander-Jones’ survey of
manuscripts in the United Kingdom relating to Australia, New Zealand
and the Pacific. Professor Jim Davidson, the Department’s head, had
funded Dorothy Crozier’s initial survey of colonial administration
archives in Suva and expedited her appointment as the first archivist
of Fiji and the Western Pacific.
Maude regarded Bob Langdon as the only person in Australia who
possessed wide knowledge of Pacific history and its documentary
sources, as well as extensive contacts in the Islands and enough
business sense to carry out the job. The Bureau is a joint copying
project, modelled on the Australian Joint Copying Project, initially
supported by the University of Hawaii Library, the Turnbull Library in
Wellington, the National Library of Australia, the Mitchell Library,
the State Library of Victoria, and the ANU. It tracks down and copies
documentary sources in or relating to the Islands for the PMB member
libraries. Although the general guideline for the Bureau’s activities
was in Maude’s, “The Documentary Basis for Pacific Studies”, it was up
to Bob to implement a program. He did so initially by drawing on
materials he had accessed for his PIM articles. He also produced a
newsletter, Pambu, which carried reports of his documentary
discoveries, designed not only to inform sponsoring libraries but also
to be reprinted by PIM and other publications in the hope of bringing
in more manuscripts for copying. Bob purchased a portable microfilm
camera and began a series of Island fieldtrips which continued
throughout his time at the Bureau.
His first microfilming expedition, in April-May 1969, was to the New
Hebrides (Vanuatu) where he had established contacts during his visits
for PIM in 1963 and 1966. On Tangoa Island, South Santo, he filmed
records of the Presbyterian Training Institute before it closed after
75 years of operation. He then flew in heavy weather to Aoba Island to
visit Archdeacon Derek Rawcliffe of the Melanesian Mission at Lolowai.
Bob’s account of the trip shows some of the hazards of this kind of
archival work. The pilot of the New Hebrides Airways Aztec aircraft was
Gary Ogg, an Australian of 22 or 23 years, renowned for flying in all
weathers.
The rain was now coming down so heavily that I could hardly see out of
the windows. Even so, we took off without difficulty and were soon
flying over an ink-blue, white flecked sea. For 10 minutes, the going
was quite bumpy. Then the sky cleared a little and the turbulence
decreased until we sighted Devil’s Point, the westernmost tip of Aoba,
and the sky again became an ominous black. Aoba, a huge, extinct
volcano, was covered in dense vegetation from its summit to its
iron-bound coast line. We flew along its southern side and then
northeastwards as it changed direction. After spotting a hole in the
‘ceiling’, Ogg came down over the narrow grass strip of Longana, and as
he turned to land, he said to everyone: ‘Are you ready?’ And down we
came, seemingly flying crabwise.
A jeep was standing at the edge of the jungle beside the strip, and as
we taxied towards it, I could see the Venerable Archdeacon Rawcliffe, a
florid man in his late forties with a prominent, hawklike nose. He was
standing in the rain in a beret, a raincoat and bare feet – not
everyone’s image of the head of an Anglican diocese…
We drove on through a thick tangle of jungle, dodging coconuts and
fallen trees, climbing and descending almost perpendicular slopes, and
occasionally dragging down vines and leaves from low overhanging
branches… Finally we reached the archdeacon’s house, a small four-room
building overlooking a cove of evident volcanic origin. The rain was
still dripping down. It continued so, or got much worse, during the
whole of my stay at Lolowai.
They changed into dry clothes and the Archdeacon got out his archives.
They were letters and papers about land matters dating back to the turn
of the century, registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths, a brief
history of Aoba by a former missionary and a great deal of linguistic
material written by the archdeacon himself and his predecessors.
Working into the night, Bob filmed these documents until the generator
went off and resumed work in the morning until the camera jammed. He
took the camera head for repair on a hair raising trip along the rim of
a volcanic crater to a neighbour’s house.
Conditions were so oppressive when I resumed microfilming [at the
archdeacon’s house] that I was soon awash again in my own perspiration.
Then the rain began to fall in positive torrents accompanied by fearful
flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder which caused the lights to
flicker erratically. The moths and mosquitoes suddenly became so
numerous that canny timing was needed to avoid photographing an insect
each time the lens shutter was released. Finally the wind-on mechanism
jammed again and I decided that I had done enough microfilming at
Lolowai and packed up. (From the unpublished section of Every Goose a
Swan, Ch.60.)
The next morning the storm had abated a little when Bob was rowed out
to the mission ship, Fauabu Twomey, for the voyage back to Santo, but
the sea was still rough enough for a big wave to dowse the camera case.
The ship crossed the rough strait to Santo where Bob arrived in time to
meet up with friends and survey the remains of an ancient stone wall,
which he demonstrated to have been built by Spaniards, before moving on
to the next stage of the microfilming program.
Bob Langdon made many similar expeditions for the Bureau. During his 17
years as PMB executive officer, the Bureau produced about 2,100 rolls
of 35mm microfilm of Pacific Islands manuscripts, archives and rare
printed material, together with associated documentation, including
published and unpublished indexes. Following Bob’s retirement in 1984,
the Bureau continued to build on the firm foundations he had
established, eventually shifting attention to more contemporary Pacific
Islands archives. While Bob continued to take a kindly, encouraging
interest in the affairs of the Bureau, he gave his main attention to
his personal research. As a visiting fellow in Pacific History at the
ANU, a position which he retained until his death, he advocated his
unorthodox views on the migration of the Pacific Islanders, supported
by linguistic, botanical and biological evidence. However, it is his
contribution to the preservation of Pacific Islands archives which will
be remembered by archivists. Langdon was the Indiana Jones of
archivists.
Ewan Maidment
5 Nov 2003
(from Archives & Manuscripts, Nov 2003)
Robert Langdon, 2003
* * *
A NAVAL OFFICER IN THE PACIFIC: THE
JOURNAL OF JAMES HAY
James Hay was 2nd lieutenant on HMS Emerald, one of the British
warships of the Australian Station in 1880-82. At the beginning of the
voyage he dutifully began keeping a log, which later became a detailed
journal, with many delightful sketches. The manuscript, which will be a
useful source on cross-cultural relations in the Pacific, has been
bought by the Library from a London dealer.
The most dramatic episode described in the journal was an expedition in
December 1880 to the Solomon Islands to avenge the deaths some months
previously of a British naval officer and four other men on Nogu
Island. For a few weeks, the Emerald sailed between the islands while
landing parties tried to locate the murderers and set fire to
villages. In unfamiliar country, the British seamen moved slowly
and they usually found the villages deserted. At the end of the
expedition Hay reported that ‘the number of villages destroyed during
this unpleasant cruize I suppose to be 33 at the lowest computation and
upwards of 250 huts altogether’.
In the next twelve months the Emerald sailed over a large part of the
western Pacific, visiting Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and
the Gilbert, Ellice, Marshall and Caroline Islands. At each island
group, Hay recorded meetings with chiefs and his impressions of the
peoples, their villages and their customs. In Fiji, for instance, he
noted that Suva was no more than one or two houses and a store and he
could not understand why it, rather than Levuka, had been chosen as the
capital. He showed a fair degree of sympathy for the indigenous
peoples, often regretting the impact of smallpox and the influence of
missionaries and traders. In his view Maori ‘troubles’ were an
inevitable consequence of the annexation of their lands by British
settlers.
The Australian passages in the journal are more cursory, as Melbourne
or Hobart did not have the exotic interest of Funafuti or Ovalau. Hay
was present at the opening of the Exhibition Building in Melbourne in
1880 and he noted that the ‘colonial forces except the Victorian Navy
were not remarkable for much except small physique, bad marching and
worse clothing’. In Sydney the Emerald was one of ten warships engaged
in a sham fight, attacking Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. Once while on leave,
Hay stayed on a station near Bungendore where he took part in a
kangaroo hunt. The Southern Highlands and Tablelands were always a
popular region for officers enjoying breaks from their naval duties.
The Library holds journals and letters of many British naval officers
who visited Australia and the western Pacific, from Cook in 1770 until
the closure of the Australian Station in 1913. The journal of
James Hay is an important addition to this collection and is especially
notable for his impressions, in the form of both writings and drawings,
of the peoples of the western Pacific.
Graeme Powell
Manuscripts Librarian, NLA (from Gateways)
* * *
NEW PUBLICATION:
TRAINING IN PRESERVATION MICROFILMING
In mid October 2003 the National Library of Australia launched its new
training materials Training in Preservation Microfilming. The National
Library of Australia, in collaboration with the State Library of South
Australia and under the auspices of IFLA PAC, has produced a set of
preservation microfilming training material onsisting of 10 modules, 6
wall charts, a logbook, a learning guide, a glossary/index and a small
kit of practical training aids. Training in Preservation Microfilming,
is the result of an IFLA PAC survey on microfilming training needs in
the South East Asia and Pacific region conducted in 2001 by Sarah Laws.
The National Library of Australia is distributing Training in
Preservation Microfilming to National Libraries and Archives in the
region, including those institutions and individuals who responded to
the IFLA-PAC survey. The content of Training in Preservation
Microfilming will continue to be available from the Library's website.
However, the practical training aids are only vailable in limited
quantities and the library hopes that you can make Training in
Preservation Microfilming and the practical training aids available to
those institutions and individuals in your region that may require it.
A distribution list of institutions that hold the material will be
available on the National Library's website.
Training in Preservation Microfilming was written by Heather Brown,
Preservation Manager at the State Library of South Australia. It
conforms to the accredited Australian preservation microfilming
curriculum, and when delivered by an accredited agency, may be used for
formal qualifications or to recognize current competencies. The
resource could also be used as a guide to microfilming basics for those
not wishing to undertake formal training.
Training in Preservation Microfilming was primarily developed for use
in the Asia Pacific region and is in English. It is available in
several formats, including PDF and CD. See the following URL for more
details,
http://www.nla.gov.au/preserve/trainmat.html
There are a limited number of additional printed copies available and
priority will be given to those individuals and organizations with no
or unreliable access to the internet. Please contact me on the address
below with the details of your situation so that copies can be reserved
for you.
Please contact me if you require further information about the training
material.
Marian Hanley, Project Officer
Preservation Services
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600. AUSTRALIA
e-mail: mhanley@nla.gov.au
phone: +61 2 6262 1780
fax: +61 2 6262 1653
* * *
SPANIARDS, PORTUGUESE AND THE PACIFIC:
SOURCES
Anita Katzinger
(Anita submitted her PhD thesis, “Túpac Inca Yupanqui’s
Avichumbi and Ivichumbi: Spaniards, Portuguese and the Pacific”, at the
Institute of Romance Languages, University of Vienna, earlier this
year.)
Balboa’s crossing of the Cordillera de Darién in 1513 opened new
horizons for Europe: the existence of another ocean. In 1512 Francisco
Serrão stepped onto the Moluccas. A Portuguese, Serrão
had never heard of the new sea.
One has to differentiate between two Iberian policies of expansion: a
western and an eastern conception. Scholastically thinking Spaniards
chose a brave way, they navigated along South American shores not known
before in order to find a passage way to the actual spice islands.
Real-geographically oriented Portuguese reached India through travels
by Vasco da Gama; they reached Melaka through Diogo Lopes de Sequeira’s
voyage; China through Jorge Alvares’ adventure; and the Pacific Ocean
through Antonio de Abreu’s risk-taking.
Magellan, who knew South-East Asia, was convinced of Ternate being to
the east of the Tordesillas line and therefore in Spanish waters.
Picking up the Columbian western conception, he left Sanlúcar de
Barrameda with five ships and discovered the strait named after him.
Seeing the new ocean so peacefully lying before him he baptized it “mar
pacífico”. Getting involved in conflicts between two sultans of
the newly discovered islands, he was killed at the Philippine island of
Mactan. It was the Basque Elcano who completed the circumnavigation of
the globe. Returning with two shiploads of cloves, he indirectly
promoted the conflict between Spain and Portugal about the possession
of the Moluccas. (They came to an agreement upon it in the Treaty of
Zaragoza of 1529.) A nobleman named Pigafetta from the upper Italian
town of Vicenza kept a diary of his participation in the journey which
he undertook at his own expense.
Magellan’s standard expedition situation was to be repeated for almost
100 years. Between 1522 and 1609 the new ocean was crossed by the fleet
of Gómez de Espinosa, the remaining ships of García Jofre
de Loaisa’s expedition, the armadas of Alvaro de Saavedra Cerón,
Hernando de Grijalva, Ruy López de Villalobos, Miguel
López de Legazpi, Alvaro de Mendaña and Pedro
Fernández de Quirós. They opened up a new world of
islands which we know today within confederations such as the Republic
of Marshall Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas,
Kiribati, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Pilots, priests and admirals
recorded their participation in the voyages. Most of their logs have
come down to us. Conflicts seem to be a precondition of the encounters
between Europeans and Pacific Islanders. Attempted colonisations
(except of the Philippines) failed because of the Spanish inability to
communicate. Scholastic conceptions destroyed the efforts of the best
interpreters.
Ignoring the facts of the encounters and looking for new perspectives
triggered off new travels. The Spaniards pressed ahead with European
utopian conceptions of the Columbian legacy. Conceptions comprising,
for example: Hiram’s biennial trip to the Solomonic gold fields;
Cicero’s legendary terra australis; ancient Greek islands, such as
Chryse and Argyre, which the resourceful Sarmiento de Gamboa catapulted
into the Pacific Ocean; and a Peruvian tradition, which became manifest
in the Manila fleet, of ancient Incas who used to go to gold and silver
islands.
After Quirós’ death Spanish interest (Portuguese never went
further than Japan) in exploratory voyages to legendary lands stopped.
Subsequent European seafaring nations directly or indirectly benefited
from the excellent nautical know-how gained by the Spaniards. Was the
Pacific just a training area for Spanish navigators?
The primary sources used in my thesis are:
Ancient Greek and Latin texts which describe the antipodes, Indian and
paradisiacal conceptions:
• Apollodorus: Library, II
• Cicero: De re publica. Somnium Scipionis.
• Claudius Ptolemy: Geography, in: Bunbury, E. H.: A
History of Ancient Geography, 1-2, New York 1959 (Library of the
University of Vienna)
• Euripides: Hercules
• Flavius Arrianus: Indiké
• Flavius Arrianus: The Anabasis of Alexander
• Flavius Josephus: The Antiquities of the Jews, VIII
• Hesiod: The Theogony
• Homer: Iliade, VIII
• Homer: Odyssey, V-XV, XXIV
• Ovidius: Metamorphoses, XIV
• Pindar: Olympian Odes
• Plato: Critias
• Plato: Timaeus
• Pliny: Naturalis Historiae, VI
• Plutarch: Plutarchi Moralia, V
• Pomponius Mela: De Chorographia Libri Tres
• Seneca: Medea
• Strabo: Geographika, I, III, in: Warmington, E. H.
(Ed.): The Geography of Strabo, 2, Cambridge, Mass.-London 1969
(Library of the University of Vienna)
Medieval conceptions:
• Ailly, Pierre d’: Ymago Mundi, I-III, Paris 1930
(Austrian National Library)
• Behaim, Martin: Der Behaim-Globus zu Nürnberg,
Bonn-Berlin 1943 (Austrian National Library)
• Letts, Malcolm: Mandeville’s Travels, London 1953
(Austrian National Library)
• Polo, Marco: Il Milione
Spanish texts of the Conquista:
• Colón, Cristóbal: Libro de
Profecías, Madrid 1992 (Biblioteca de Colón IV) (Library
of the Instituto de Cervantes in Vienna)
• Cortés, Hernán: Cartas de
Relación, México 1993 (“Sepan cuantos …” 7)
• Laso de la Vega, García, el Inca:
Comentarios reales de los Incas (Ed. A. Miro Quesada), 1-2, Venezuela,
Biblioteca Ayacucho 1976
• Vasco Núñez de Balboa and the
discovery of the “mar del sur” in: Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo:
Historia general y natural de las Indias occidentales (Ed. J. Perez de
Tudela Bueso), Madrid 1992, 3; XXIX (Library of the University of
Vienna)
• Pacheco, Joaquin F.; Cárdenas, Francisco de;
Torres de Mendoza, Luis (Ed.): Colección de documentos
inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y
colonialización de las possessiones españolas en
América y Occeania, 1-n, Madrid 1864, 1865, 1873 (Austrian
National Library)
• Portuguese sources:
• Major, Richard Henry: The Discoveries of Prince
Henry the Navigator, and their results; being the narrative of the
discovery by sea within one century, of more than half the world,
London 1877 (Austrian National Library)
• Jacobs Th. Th. M., Hubert: A treatise on the
Molucas. Probably the preliminary version of António de
Galvão’s lost História das Molucas, Rome-St. Louis 1971
(National Library of Australia)
• Jacobs, Hubert (Ed.): Documenta Malucensia, I-n,
Rome 1974 (Monumenta Missionum Societatis Iesu, Volumen 109) (National
Library of Australia)
• Pires, Tumé: Suma Oriental. Portugaglia
Monumenta Cartográfica, 1-6, Lissabon 1966 (Austrian National
Library)
Texts of Magellan’ s journey:
• Pigafetta, Antonio: Primer viaje en torno del
Globo, Madrid 1963
• Albo, Francisco: Diario ó derrotero del
viage, in: Navarrete, Martin Fernandez de: Colección de los
viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles
desde fines del siglo XV, con varios documentos inéditos
concernientes a la historia marina castellana y los establecimientos
españoles en Indias, Madrid 1825-1837, 4 (Austrian National
Library)
• Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa and the Trinidad:
Declaraciones que dieron en Valladolid Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa,
Ginés de Mafra, y Leon Pancaldo, sobre los acontecimientos de la
nao Trinidad en las Malucas, in: Navarrete, 4
• Antonio Brito: Carta de Antonio Brito al Rey de
Portugal sobre algunos sucesos en la India y los del viage de
Magallanes, in: Navarrete, 4
Texts of Loaisa’s voyage:
• Testamento de Elcano, in: Prieto, Carlos: El
Océano Pacífico, Madrid 1975 (Instituto Cervantes, Vienna)
• Relaciones de Andrés de Urdaneta in:
Navarrete, 5
• Hernando de la Torre: Relacion de Hernando de la
Torre de lo ocurrido en las Molucas contra los portugueses de
Terrenate, Navarrete, 5
• Juan de Arizaga and his “Relacion…de la nao
Santiago”, Navarrete, 5
• Francisco Dávila and his “Relacion…de la nao
S. Gabriel”, Navarrete, 5
Texts of the journey of Alvaro de Saavedra y Cerón:
• Vicente de Nápoles: Relacion que
presentó en Madrid el año 1534 […], in: Navarrete, 5
• Francisco Granado: Relacion del viage que hizo
Alvaro de Saavedra, in: Navarrete, 5
Hernando de Grijalva:
• Jacobs Th. Th. M., Hubert: A treatise on the
Molucas. Probably the preliminary version of António de
Galvão’s lost História das Molucas, Rome-St. Louis 1971
Ruy Lopez de Villalobos:
• Pedro de Alvarado: Carta del Adelantado Don Pedro
de Alvarado, in: Navarrete, 2,
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi:
• Relaciones de Esteban Rodríguez, Rodrigo de
Espinosa, Alfonso de Arellano and Juan de la Isla in: Navarrete, 2, 3
Alvaro de Mendaña:
• Landín Carrasco, Amancio: Vida y viajes de
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Madrid 1945
• Relaciones de Alvaro de Mendaña,
Gómez Hernández Catoira, Hernán de Gallego, Isabel
Barreto, Sarmiento de Gamboa, in: Kelly, Celsus: Australia Franciscana,
Madrid 1963, 2-6 (The Australian National University Library)
Pedro Fernández de Quirós:
• Fernández de Quirós, Pedro: Historia
del descubrimiento de las regiones Australes, Madrid 1876 (Austrian
National Library)
• Fernández de Quirós, Pedro:
Memoriales de las Indias Australes (Ed. Oscar Pinochet), Madrid 1990
(Instituto de Cervantes, Vienna)
• Relaciones of the Friars Martín de Munilla,
Mateo de Vascones, Juan de Torquemada, Antonio Daza, Diego de Cordova
in: Kelly, Celsus: Austrialia Franciscana, Madrid 1963, 1
• Hilder, Brett: El viaje de Torres de Veracruz a
Manila. Descubrimiento de la costa meridional de Nueva Guinea y del
estrecho de Torres y Documentos de la epoca de la travesía,
Madrid 1990 (The Australian National University Library)
• Sanz, Carlos (Ed.): Descubrimiento de Australia.
Memorial Nr. 8. Texto original (impreso en Madrid c. 1609) y presentado
al Rey Felipe III por el Capitán Pedro Fernández de
Quirós, no year (State Library of New South Wales)
• Hargrave, Lawrence: Lope de Vega, Sydney 1909
(State Library of New South Wales)
• Prado y Tovar, Diego de: Relación sumaria.
The discovery of Australia [computer file], Sydney 1998 (University of
Sydney Library)
• Sanvitores, Diego Luis de: Memorial de […]
Sanvitores: […] Rector de la Islas Marianas, Mexico 1669 (State Library
of New South Wales)
* * *
PARBICA 10, Wellington, New Zealand, 21-26 July
2003.
The 10th biennial conference of the Pacific Regional Branch of the
International Council on Archives was organised by Archives New Zealand
with the assistance of the Turnbull Library and a troop of local
archivists. It was attended by government archivists from the United
Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and most Pacific Islands nations,
except the Solomon Islands, Nauru, East Timor, the Marshall Islands and
Tokelau. A number of other NZ university libraries and local government
archives participated, including the University of Auckland Library,
the Macmillan Brown Library at Canterbury University and the Wellington
Public Library. Other institutional participants were the Reserve Bank
of Fiji, the University of Guam, the University of PNG, the National
University of Samoa, the International Records Management Trust (UK),
the International Council on Archives and the Pacific Manuscripts
Bureau.
The opening sessions, a round-up of reports from the participants and a
panel on latest archival developments, were very informative.
• The Micronesia Area Research Center might be
disbanded. Its manuscripts and Spanish documents collections are being
transferred to the University of Guam Library.
• Acute accommodation problems were reported by a
number of government archives, most urgently in Niue and Guam, but also
in the FSM (Pohnpei), Samoa and Fiji. The UPNG Library is considering
using containers to hold additional archives. Funding for new
government archives repositories is being sought in Vanuatu and Fiji.
In the Cook Islands some funding has been allocated toward completing
the new government repository.
• Public service reforms have cut staff in the
National Archives of Vanuatu to one full-time position. UPNG reported
difficulty in finding trained staff. Negotiations with the USP for the
establishment of a course on records management and archives
administration appear to have bogged down over funding. However the
Open Polytechnic of New Zealand has just established an attractive and
accessible course.
• Land records and periodicals are being digitised in
the Territorial Archives in French Polynesia. The challenge of
digitisation is important at UPNG, where the University’s stated
mission is to externalise its programs, and in Kiribati where the
National Archives would like to digitise all land registers and Land
Court minutes.
• There is a trend toward university libraries taking
responsibility for the administration of government archives. The
University of Auckland Library has taken over the Western Pacific
Archives. The College of the Northern Marianas administers the Northern
Marianas government archives and holds a set of the Trust Territory
microfilms. The College of Micronesia in Pohnpei is the joint
administrator of the FSM central government archives. Negotiations are
taking place for Samoan government archives to be accommodated and
administered by the National University of Samoa.
• The principles of records continuum, linked with
accountability in record keeping, which have won favour in government
archives in the UK, NZ and Australia, are being extended to records
production throughout the public administrations of those countries
through concerted publicity campaigns and/or regulations. The World
Bank, Public Sector Reform Division, and the Records Management Trust
have produced a video on accountability and good record keeping in
public administration, “Evidenced Based Government in the Electronic
Age”. The video, which includes interviews with several Pacific
archivists, was shown at the conference.
PARBICA General Meeting, 25 July. Among other resolutions, the
general meeting urged all parties in the Solomon Islands to recognise
the value of the National Archives of the Solomon Islands (NASI) and to
take steps to safeguard its holdings. This resolution reflected general
concern about the security of the NASI holdings and its staff. As
custodian of other parts of the Western Pacific Archives, Stephen
Innes, among others, expressed concern about the condition of the BSIP
archives in Honiara. The Director-General of the National Archives of
Australia asked me to report on the NASI situation. I compiled the
report upon return to Canberra. (Copies are available from the Pacific
Manuscrips Bureau.)
Ewan Maidment
(from Archives & Manuscripts, Nov 2003)
* * *
PACIFIC PHOSPHATE
RECORDS ON MICROFILM
John T Arundel, son of a LMS official, was born in England in 1841. His
early work for a London firm with interests in guano, or phosphate,
took him into the Pacific. By 1892 Arundel had formed his own company,
J.T. Arundel & Co, which had acquired concessions over a number of
islands in what is now Kiribati – Kanton, Enderbury, Gardner, Hull,
Flint and Manra (Sydney) – to plant coconuts, make copra and mine
phosphate. The Pacific Islands Company Limited (PIC) was formed in May
1897 and, in 1898, took over plantations and trade stores of Henderson
& McFarlane Ltd in the mid-Pacific. Lord Stanmore, formerly Sir
Arthur Gordon, the first Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the
Western Pacific, was Chairman of the PIC. Arundel became its
vice-chairman. PIC business interests stretched from Mexico to Fiji,
with ready markets for copra and phosphate in New Zealand, Australia,
the USA, Japan and the UK.
In 1900 Albert Ellis (1869-1951), a company employee, travelled to
Banaba (Ocean Island) and confirmed that the island contained huge
deposits of phosphate. Ellis secured mining rights from island leaders
while the PIC was granted an imperial mining license, completed by
British annexation of Banaba. The company secured exclusive mining
rights for 999 years in return for an annual payment of £50 to
the Banaban people. Within a few years the company was making up to
£125,000 per annum. This provoked a scandal, and the license was
modified to provide for a trust fund and compensation for environmental
damage; the later commitment was never fulfilled. So profitable was
Banaban mining that the PIC sold all of its other non-phosphate
interests in the Pacific.
In 1902 the PIC reached an agreement with the Jaluit Gesellschaft of
Hamburg, giving it mining rights on German Nauru, and reconfigured
itself, forming the Pacific Phosphate Company Limited (PPC). This new
company was granted exclusive rights to mine phosphate on Banaba and
Nauru. Phosphate mining ushered in an era of ruthless colonial resource
exploitation that effectively dispossessed the indigenous peoples of
these islands who were paid minimum annual royalties while the company
made millions of pounds in profit. This correspondence documents the
early corporate history that eventually led to the environmental
devastation of both islands, the diaspora of Banabans to Rabi in Fiji
and elsewhere, and the near-bankruptcy of Nauru.
Following World War I the PPC was replaced by the British Phosphate
Commissioners (BPC) with many of the company’s former executives,
including Ellis, rolling over their managerial positions to become the
new commissioners. The BPC was not dissolved until 1981 by which time
Ocean Island had been mined out and almost completely depopulated while
Nauru, independent since 1968, had assumed direct responsibility for
phosphate mining.
The origins of many of these developments can be traced to the PIC and
PPC whose correspondence is available in the following 94 rolls of
microfilm.
PMB 1174 J. T. ARUNDEL & Co and PACIFIC ISLANDS Co Ltd,
AUSTRALIAN OFFICE: correspondence files, 1892-1904. Reels 1-8.
Presscopy letter-books of outward letters from George C. Ellis, A.F.
Ellis, H.E. Denson and J.T. Arundel of the Australian Office of J.T.
Arundel & Co and the Pacific Islands Co Ltd to business associates
mainly in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Some indexed
by subject and/or addressee. All arranged chronologically.
PMB 1175 PACIFIC ISLANDS Co Ltd and PACIFIC PHOSPHATE Co Ltd,
LONDON OFFICE: correspondence files, 1896-1908. Reels 1-15.
Correspondence from/to J.T. Arundel, G. Ellis, A.H. Gaze.
Correspondence from Arundel in Nova Scotia, Honolulu, Ocean Island,
Melbourne, San Francisco, New York, Plymouth, Japan, New Zealand,
Sydney, Tahiti; mainly to London Head Office. General correspondence,
shipping details, telegrams, machinery details, financial affairs.
Arranged alphabetically, A-Z, primarily by addressee.
PMB 1176 PACIFIC ISLANDS Co Ltd and PACIFIC PHOSPHATE Co Ltd,
AUSTRALIAN OFFICE: correspondence files, 1897-1909. Reels 1-22.
• PIC/PPC, Sydney, letter books (letters-out), Gen.
1-12, 1898-1906;
• J.T. Arundel (Sydney) letter books, Pvt. 1-4,
1899-1905;
• Letter books, Islands 1-3, 1898-1902;
• Letter books, JM & Co, 1896-1903;
• Letter books, PIC General 2 & 3, 1900-1905;
• Letter books, PIC Agency 1, 1903-1905.
• Letter book, PPC Insurance, 1904-1906;
• PPC Sydney, Reports by J T Arundel, Nos.1-174,
1903-1909;
• Letter book re purchase of Ralum property from E.E.
Forsyth, 1900-1905;
• Letter book, Ocean Is. 1, 1904-1906;
• Letter book/journal, Arthur C. Bell, Supercargo,
Emu, Jul-Sep 1900;
• Levers Pacific Plantations Ltd (inclu. Henderson
& Macfarlane, Flint Island, etc.) reference file, 1897-1903;
• Copy Suwarrow Island diary, May-Jul 1902.
PMB 1205 PACIFIC ISLANDS Co Ltd: legal papers, agreements,
reports, notes and press cuttings on islands, 1840-1914. Reels 1-5.
PIC, Sydney, correspondence with London, 1897-1898; deeds, leases,
accounts & other documents, 1877-1902; PIC articles of association,
1897 & 1902; notes on islands, 1840-1915; PIC prospectus,
1893-1896; Solomon Islands concession, 1903-04; Ocean Island Crown
Lease, 1901; PIC agreement with Jaluit Gesellschaft, 1901; PIC Reports
to Directors, 1899-1904; Copra Co Ltd estimates, 1893; PIC notice of
purchase of Henderson & Macfarlane, 1989; Jaluit Gesellschaft Nauru
concession, 1888; PIC press cuttings, 1886-99; PIC contracts,
1898-1902; Capt. Langdale, Account of Rob Roy expedition to the Solomon
Islands, 1900.
PMB 1206 PACIFIC PHOSPHATE Co Ltd, SYDNEY and MELBOURNE OFFICES:
Ocean Island and Nauru correspondence, 1900-1921. Reels 1-26.
PIC Sydney/PPC Melbourne, Letters and enclosures to & from Ocean
Island, Letterbooks Nos.1-18, 1900-1920;
PPC Melbourne, general letters and accounts re Nauru to & from PPC
London, Letterbooks Nos.1-7, 1906-1921, including correspondence with
J.T. Arundel and A.F. Ellis;
PPC Melbourne, General letters to & from Nauru, Letterbook
Nos.5-16, 1911-1920.
PMB 1207 PACIFIC PHOSPHATE Co Ltd, SYDNEY and MELBOURNE OFFICES:
London correspondence, 1902-1923. Reels 1-18.
PPC Sydney, Letters between J.T. Arundel and A.H. Gaze, 1902-1906;
PPC Sydney & Melbourne, Correspondence-out to London, 1904-1909;
PPC Sydney & Melbourne, Correspondence-in from London, 1904-1909;
PPC Melbourne, Correspondence-in from London, 1909-1923.
See also: PMB 1227 ARUNDEL FAMILY PAPERS, 1803-1935, Reels 1-2;
and
PMB 480-495, 497-498, for diaries, corres-pondence & further papers
of J.T. Arundel & A.F. Ellis.
* * *
RECENT PAMBU MICROFILM
TITLES: MANUSCRIPTS SERIES
PMB 1196
CROZIER, Dorothy (1918-2001): Research
papers on the Western Pacific, particularly Tonga and Fiji, 1936-1977.
Reels 1-13. (Available for reference)
PMB 1203
BAKER, Rev. Shirley W. and Beatrice: Tongan
papers, 1849-1950. Reels 1-5. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1207
PACIFIC PHOSPHATE CO LTD, Sydney and
Melbourne Offices: London correspondence, 1902-1923. Reels 1-18.
(Available for reference.)
PMB 1211
YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF FIJI:
archives, 1963-2000. Reels 1-2. (Closed till January 2005 then
available for reference.)
PMB 1213
GORDON, Sir Arthur: Fijian Pamphlets
collected by Sir Arthur Gordon, Vols.1-3, 1877-1883. Reel 1-2.
(Available for reference.)
PMB 1214
GORDON, Sir Arthur (1829-1912): High
Commission Fiji Pamphlets. Reel 1. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1215
GORDON, Sir Arthur (1829-1912): Newspaper
cuttings concerning Sir Arthur Gordon, 1881-1886. 1 reel. (Available
for reference.)
PMB 1216
GROVES, W. C. (1898-1967): "Report on
Education in the British Solomon Islands", 1940. 1 reel. (Available for
reference.)
PMB 1217
WESTERN DISTRICT (PNG) FLY RIVER AREA
AUTHORITY, Western District Legends, 1974-1975. 1 reel. (Available for
reference.)
PMB 1218
JOHNSON, Ross (1933- ): New
Guinea Patrol reports and related papers, 1953-1962. 1 reel. (Available
for reference.)
PMB 1220
HAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN’S SOCIETY LIBRARY,
Micronesian Collection, 1852-1923. Reels 1-15. (Available for
reference.)
PMB 1222
FRANCIS X HEZEL SJ: Papers on the Catholic
Diocese of the Caroline Islands, 1670-1999. Reels 1-7. (Available for
reference.)
PMB 1223
GOLSON, Jack: Papers on Cultural Policy in
Papua New Guinea, 1969-1976. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1224
WAHGI LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCIL: minutes of
meetings and related papers, 1962-1976. 1 reel. (Available for
reference.)
PMB 1225
THURNWALD, Richard: Papers on Buin, Sepik
and Solomon Islands languages, 1908-1911. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1226
CARTER, Gavin. Patrol reports, photographs
and related papers, Kainantu and Chimbu and Simbai Patrol Post,
Territory of Papua New Guinea, 1959-1964, together with Yambunglin
Village Register, 1960-1969. 1 reel. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1227
ARUNDEL FAMILY PAPERS, 1803-1935. Reels 1-2.
(Available for reference.)
PMB 1228
NORTON, Robert: Transcripts of political
speeches in Fiji, 1965-1968. 1 reel. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1229
SHAW, Basil (1933-2002): Somare: A Political
Biography of the First Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, 1991. 1
reel. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1230
LANGDON, Robert (1924-2003): Autobiography:
Every Goose a Swan, Volume 2, 1993. 1 reel. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1231
LANGDON, Robert (1924-2003): Correspondence
re his book The Lost Caravel, 1986-1998. 1 reel. (Available for
reference.)
PMB 1233
GLOVER, John Corbett (1909-1948): “The
Flying Priest”. Fr Glover’s account of flying experiences in New
Guinea, mainly during the Pacific War, including the evacuation to
Kainantu and his attempted flight to Thursday Island, 1936-1942. 1
reel. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1235
MACKINNON, Marsali: Fiji Oral History
Project in association with the Fiji Museum, Part 1: Part-Europeans and
Europeans, transcripts of audio recording series, PMB AUDIO 1-35,
1998-1999. 1 reel. (Available for reference.)
PMB 1236
CLARKE, George (1932-…) Tuvalu physical
development plans, reports and related papers, 1973-1993. 1 reel.
(Available for reference.)
Please contact Pambu or see PMB website http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/
for full list of microfilm titles and detailed reel lists. Unrestricted
titles are available for purchase from the Bureau. Microfilm
prices are as follows:
Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia Silver
Halide AU$70.00 per reel; Vesicular $AU65.00 per reel, less 20% for
independent Pacific island nations, plus freight, plus GST for sales in
Australia
Rest of the world Silver Halide US$70.00/reel, plus
freight
Vesicular US$65.00/reel, plus freight
Contact the Bureau for postage rates to your region/state/country
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