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Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Telephone: (61) (2) 6125 2521 Fax: (61) (2) 6125 0198
E-mail: pambu@coombs.anu.edu.au
Series 5, No.12
May 2001
The Bureau has had a quiet start to the year concentrating on documenting and editing its microfilms and despatching prints to its member libraries and the owners of the original documents or their nominees. Nevertheless some interesting material has been made available to the Bureau.
Gerry Leach lent his microfilms of Losuia District Administration archives made when he was researching local government activities in the Trobriand Islands in the early 1970s. Dr Leach copied many documents which appear to have been lost by the time the Bureau visited Losuia with the PNG National Archives last year, in particular pre-WWII patrol reports. The Bureau is compiling a calendar of the documents.
Laurie Bragge, who was a Patrol Officer in the Sepik from the early 1960s, allowed the Bureau to survey his extensive archive on the Sepik district which includes transcripts of interviews with villagers, systematic ethnographic notes with accompanying photographs and detailed journals. The Bureau has microfilmed a good set of reports from Sepik patrol posts which Mr Bragge had collected.
Papers of the late Dr Stanley Wigley who was in charge of tuberculosis control in PNG at the time when people in the New Guinea Highlands were first exposed to the disease have been transferred to the Bureau for arrangement, description and microfilming. In this issue of Pambu Andrew Thornley reports on the re-discovery of the Fiji diaries of Rev. Thomas Jaggar. Dr Thornley has kindly arranged for the Bureau to be given a copy of the microfilm of the Jaggar Papers for its member libraries.
The Bureau helped Ian Diamond relocate his unpublished biography of Edwin Turpin, a beachcomber in Fiji during the later part of the 19th century, and has microfilmed it. The National Archives of Fiji has given the Bureau permission to microfilm Turpin's journal and Mr Diamond is making arrangements for his transcription of the journal to be made available to the Bureau for microfilming too.
Marsali Mackinnon is working with the Bureau and the National Library of Australia to preserve and dub 26 oral history interviews which Ms Mackinnon made with Europeans in Fiji. This is the Bureau's first audio preservation project in its 32 years of operation and we hope it leads to many more.
The Bureau has embarked on extensive copying of archives of the British Phosphate Commission's predecessor companies: J T Arundel & Co, the Pacific Islands Co Ltd, and the Pacific Phosphate Co Ltd. These records are held with the BPC archives in the Melbourne Branch of the National Archives of Australia and are being transferred in batches to the Bureau for microfilming. They mainly consist of letterbooks and reports documenting at first the companies' broad interests in Pacific trading and planting, but narrowing to an exclusive focus on the extraction of guano from Banaba (Ocean Island) and Nauru.
Further papers recently microfilmed by the Bureau include :
The plethora of PNG materials will not be continuing as the Bureau is reorientating its programs towards Micronesia and Polynesia.
Diaries and Papers of Rev Thomas Jaggar, Wesleyan Missionary in Fiji, 1839-48
In 1971, I catalogued the Methodist Church of Fiji manuscript collection for the National Archives of Fiji. Undoubtedly the most valuable original item was the diary of Rev. Thomas Jaggar, commencing when he arrived at Lakeba on 22 December 1839 and continuing on to his residence at Rewa from 12 July 1839 to the abrupt concluding entry of what I refer to as the 'Rewa Diary' on 26 March 1843. It is not known how this diary had made its way to Fiji to be part of the substantial collection.
Returning to Fiji in the late 1980s, I learned that the diary was no longer with the Methodist Collection. It had been taken to New Zealand by Jaggar's great great granddaughter, Esther Keesing-Styles, who, together with her son William, edited and published the diary in 1988 [Unto the Perfect Day: The Journal of Thomas James Jaggar, 1838-1845, Auckland, Solent Publishing 1988]. Keesing-Styles included with the Rewa diary a second private and mainly spiritual diary of Thomas Jaggar, kept from 30 April to 30 September 1845; this diary had not been part of the original Methodist Collection.
The Keesing-Styles made an important contribution to Pacific mission literature with the publication of the Jaggar diaries. However, not knowing Fiji places and names well or the Fijian orthography intimately, they understandably made errors in the transcription of Jaggar's writing, which at times is quite difficult to decipher. This would not be a problem if the original had remained in public hands. But it did not. The Rewa Diary was not returned to the National Archives of Fiji.
Eventually, through some detective work by my wife's mother in Auckland, I managed to trace down the residence of William Keesing-Styles. I contacted him at the beginning of 2001 and, to my considerable relief, he confirmed that he was holding the Rewa Diary and other papers of his great great great grandfather. When I told him of the story of the Rewa Diary he was very understanding and generously offered to hand over all the original papers, on condition they be returned to Fiji. I also offered to have them copied. These were brought by hand to me in Sydney. They included the two diaries already mentioned together with a folder of letters written to Jaggar between 1838 and 1846.
Between then and now, Martin Beckett of the Mitchell Library has arranged to have all this material microfilmed. Through an arrangement between the Mitchell and the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, further copies will be made for distribution to participating libraries. Meanwhile the originals will be returned by hand to the National Archives of Fiji in November of this year. A microfilm will accompany them. I doubt that they will be allowed out of the sight of the Archivist again.
homas Jaggar lived at Rewa during a very significant
time in Fiji's post-contact history, including the years when the
protracted war between Rewa and Bau broke out in 1842. To my knowledge,
he was the only European living among the Rewa people between 1839 and
1843, who kept a detailed record of events. He understood the language
and he was in frequent communication with the chiefs. So his diary is
extremely valuable, not the least for the next generation of Fijian
scholars. I will conclude this brief report with an excerpt from
Jaggar's Rewa diary where he records the appearance in the skies of
Halley's Comet in 1843:
March 5: The heathen are very much afraid at the appearance of the Comet. They say that nothing of the kind has been seen by them before. Some say that it is Jehovah, others that some great chief has died & therefore this is appearing (his star perhaps). Many express their fears lest they all die. Chiefs and people seem truly to fear this "sign in the heaven".
Andrew Thornley
In 1960 a retired US Coast Guardsman recalled a tale he heard when dismantling a LORAN station on Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) in the Phoenix Group in 1946.
"A native was walking along one end of the island. In the brush about five feet from the shoreline he saw a skeleton." He tells of the skeleton's "women's shoes, size nine, narrow, American kind." and "a Cognac bottle with water for drinking." The island doctor pronounced the bones female and they were taken to Suva by boat.
Around 1989 TIGHAR, a group researching the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, heard the story. They were interested because at the time the island was first settled there should have been no females with American style shoes there. At first the story was taken lightly, as the British administrator had made no mention of bones in his reports and some other details didn't fit. Investigation revealed a few older people who had lived on the island thought bones had been found there.
In 1997 a folder was found in the Kiribati National Archives labeled "Discovery of Human Remains on Gardner Island". It contained official telegrams and a letter detailing the 1940 discovery by the British administrator of a partial skeleton, a Benedictine liqueur bottle, a box that had once held a sextant (navigation instrument) and part of the sole of what looked to be a woman's shoe. He thought he had found Amelia Earhart.
Knowledge of the find went all the way to Sir Harry Luke, the senior official for the British government in the Pacific. Others who knew of the bones included Native Magistrate Teng Koata, and a few top British officials. About April 1941, the bones arrived in Suva in a box made from an attractive local timber known as "Kanawa", along with some other objects. A doctor judged the bones to belong to an elderly Polynesian male and the matter was dropped.
TIGHAR is trying to discover what became of the bones. Modern assessment of the measurements taken by the doctor indicates that the person was female. If the bones can be found, tests may be able to determine if the body found on Nikumaroro was Amelia Earhart.
This raises the question, "Would an elderly Polynesian male castaway be in possession of a sextant box and a Cognac bottle?" Sextants were, and are rather expensive specialized navigation instruments and a sextant box would not usually be lying around on a beach.
TIGHAR needs to find out: Where on Nikumaroro were the bones found? Perhaps there are more bones there. What happened to the bones sent to Suva in the Kanawa wood box?
Any information that may help solve this 64 year old
Pacific mystery can be forwarded to TIGHAR's executive director,
Richard Gillespie at:
TIGHAR
2812 Fawkes Drive
Wilmington, DE 19808
USA
Fax 302/994-7945
Ross Devitt
New microfilm titles relating to law and constitutional change in Vanuatu
Over the past three years the PMB has microfilmed a number of papers relating to the legal and constitutional history of Vanuatu, steadily expanding our range of inter related titles. The first of this theme is PMB Doc 438 Protocol Respecting the New Hebrides. The French and British governments signed a protocol respecting the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in 1914 and ratified it on March 18 1922. The Bureau has microfilmed the ratified version, a copy of the original made available by Mrs Denny Gubbay, of Sydney, formerly resident of Vanuatu. The protocol superseded the Anglo-French convention of 1906 which had established the Condominium of the New Hebrides in that year. Both the convention and the protocol provided the legal-constitutional foundations of French and British administration in the archipelago which was declared "a region of joint influence". The protocol allowed France and the UK to govern jointly in the New Hebrides and establish exclusive sovereignty over their own citizens. Foreign citizens of other nationality who lived in the territory had to choose between French or British jurisdiction, and these were called "optants". Indigenous ni-Vanuatu were placed under the jurisdiction of the condominium.
Therefore, between 1906 and 1980 (the year of Vanuatu's independence) three laws operated in Vanuatu: British, French and Condominium. Article 12 of the protocol confirmed the presence of the condominium Joint Court in the territory. The Joint Court had civil and criminal jurisdiction over ni-Vanuatu, matters involving ni-Vanuatu and British/French citizens/optants and in matters between British/French citizens/optants. The Joint Court had one British and one French judge with a neutral President. The latter was originally appointed by the King of Spain but this practice ceased from the late 1930s following the suspension of the Spanish monarchy. The PMB has produced 7 rolls of microfilmed judgements which were issued by the Joint Court from 1911 - 1977 as PMB 1145: SUPREME COURT OF VANUATU: Judgements of the Joint Court of the New Hebrides, 1911-1977. These were microfilmed in mid 1999 in the Archives of the Supreme Court of Vanuatu, Port Vila and this has resulted in the preservation of a largely complete set of judgements issued in criminal cases for this period (see Pambu November 1999, Series 5, No.9 for further details).
There are very few civil cases in these judgements, and it appears that these may have been maintained as a separate series. The Bureau also understands that there may be a separate series of judgements involving land cases. The PMB was unable to locate a complete run of these in Vila, but understands that copies may be kept elsewhere. The Bureau would be delighted to hear from any one who knows where judgements concerning land cases are currently kept.
Apart from the Joint Court, the protocol also empowered the condominium to make laws for joint finance, land registration, postal services, town planning and laws specifically made for ni-Vanuatu. Both France and the UK appointed Resident Commissioners to govern the New Hebrides by joint regulation. Joint regulations were in effect condominium laws in lieu of local parliamentary legislation issued as decrees by both the French and British Resident Commissioners acting in unison. Joint regulations were made in consultation with the British Western Pacific High Commissioner, based in Suva, and the French Governor (later High Commissioner) of New Caledonia who were also responsible for recommending the appointment of their representative Resident Commissioners based in Port Vila. The Bureau was honoured to be presented with a spare copy of a three volume consolidated edition of these Joint Regulations by the Chief Justice of the Republic of Vanuatu, The Honourable Mr Vincent Lunabek, in July 1999. These have been microfilmed as a 2 reel Joint Regulations of the New Hebrides: a consolidated edition of the Joint Regulations in force on the 18 October 1973. The dates of these Joint Regulations range from 1907 - 1973. These Joint Regulations provide a useful resource for understanding pre- independence law in Vanuatu.
The Chief Justice of the Republic of Vanuatu, the Honourable Vincent Lunabek, also presented the Bureau with a three volume copy of the British Laws of the New Hebrides, which have been microfilmed as PMB 446: The British Laws of the New Hebrides. In addition to joint condominium services and laws, the protocol also empowered the two governments to establish their own bureaucracies governed by respective French and British laws. This explained why there were separate French and British police forces, currencies, hospitals and schools in the New Hebrides prior to independence. Details of French legislation pertaining to the New Hebrides can be found in the Journal officiel de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendences. As for British legislation, the Order in Council of 1893, article 108, empowered the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (based in Suva, Fiji) to make Queen's Regulations for persons subject to the High Commission's jurisdiction. This was amended by the New Hebrides Order in Council 1907 which was issued to accommodate the requirements of the new condominium. The New Hebrides Order in Council of 1922 made further changes to the way British law was enacted in the New Hebrides following the ratification of protocol in that year. While subjecting them to the protocol, the 1922 Order in Council continued to preserve the powers of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific or the Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides (acting on behalf of the former) to make Queen's Regulations for persons under the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Western Pacific. These three orders (1893, 1907 and 1922) provided the foundations for subsequent Queen's Regulations and British laws for the New Hebrides, including these of 1971. Although only one volume (1971) is available here, these Queen's Regulations and British laws are significant as they include the banking and companies regulations which turned Vanuatu into a tax haven or Offshore Finance Centre (OFC) in that year.
The legal complexity that characterised colonial rule in Vanuatu lead to duplications and even "triplications" between the French, British and Condominium administrative functions. For example the protocol provided for a joint health service, but there were separate British and French hospitals, clinics and physicians. The distinction between French and British services and growing duplications with the condominium became more noticeable as the two powers increased their levels of spending in the territory in the 1960s and 1970s. The laws on which these services were based - British, French and Condominium - were not subject to any local legislative or parliamentary restraint, despite the appointment of an Advisory Council in 1957. This led to growing ni-Vanuatu discontent with the condominium and calls for independence through the 1970's. Mr Keith Woodward OBE has documented the constitutional and political changes that occurred as a response to the emergence of a broad-based independence movement. His 77 page unpublished typescript has been microfilmed as PMB 1151: Historical Summary of Constitutional Advances in the New Hebrides, 1954 - 1977.
Mr Woodward arrived in Vanuatu as an Oxford graduate in 1953 to begin his career with the British Residency. He was subsequently promoted through the New Hebrides British Service and by the 1970s he had been appointed Secretary for Political Affairs in the British Residency of the New Hebrides. He held this post until his departure from the territory in 1978. His position as Secretary for Political Affairs coincided with rapid constitutional change in Vanuatu as the territory moved towards independence. Up until the 1950s the New Hebrides had no representative form of government. This began to change in 1957 with the formation of an Advisory Council and Mr Woodward provides an insightful overview into its composition and functions. This complements earlier PMB titles of the New Hebrides Advisory Council Meetings 1958 - 1973 (Doc 297 - 299, Doc 328 and Doc 368). However, most of Mr Woodward's manuscript concentrates on the constitutional changes that occurred in response to the growing ni-Vanuatu (indigenous) demands for independence in the early to mid 1970s. These include the formation of a Representative Assembly comprised of a majority of elected members in 1975 to succeed the Advisory Council, the Vanuaaku Pati's (VP) (main independ-ence political party) boycott of the 1977 elections and the subsequent proclamation of a People's Provisional Government (PPG), and the political tensions between various Anglophone/ Francophone political movements as they established their respective constitutional positions regarding the transition to national independence. Mr Woodward's analysis of this crucial period in Vanuatu's political and constitutional history provides an important framework in which to contextualise the last two turbulent years of condominium rule, independence in 1980 and the political climate of the early 1980s.
Combined, the microfilmed copies of the Protocol, Joint Court Judgements, Joint Regulations, Queen's Regulations and Keith Woodward's coverage of constitutional change in the New Hebrides provide a comprehensive set of inter-related thematically linked records on sources of law, legislation and politics in pre-independence Vanuatu. The PMB would like to thank the Supreme Court of the Republic of Vanuatu, the USP School of Law, Mrs Denny Gubbay and Mr Keith Woodward OBE for their support, cooperation and enthusiasm for making these important series of records available on microfilm.
Greg Rawlings
PMB Executive Assistant
May 2001
Australian School of Pacific Administration
In 1945 the Australian Army, with the approval of General Blamey, established the Land Headquarters, School of Civil Affairs, in the grounds of the Military College, Duntroon, to train officers for the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit. In March 1946, the School became a civil institution, named The Australian School of Pacific Administration, and was transferred to Mosman in Sydney and later to Middle Head. ASOPA was given statutory recognition under the Papua New Guinea Act in 1949 and continued to function as a responsibility of the Minister for External Territories till 1 December 1973 when the International Training Institute came into existence as a result of the Australian Government's decision to integrate ASOPA into the structure of the Australian Development Assistance Agency (later AIDAB, then AusAid), under the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A collection of documents relating to the School's
administration, courses, staff, reviews and restructures was compiled
in the ASOPA Library. On closure of that Library, the documents were
transferred to the AusAid Library which made them available to the
Bureau. The collection consists of reports, minutes of some ASOPA
Council meetings, correspondence and copies of some other internal
documents. A number of papers, including curricula, correspondence and
notes by Camilla Wedgwood, Charles Julius, W C Groves, V H Parkinson
and Peter Lawrence focus on training of patrol officers, administrators
and teachers in PNG. A file on the future of ASOPA, 1954-1968, is
particularly interesting for documents reviewing the functions and role
of the School, including:
The Library of AusAid, the Australian Overseas Aid organisation, in Canberra which holds thousands of reports on Australian overseas aid projects, including many in the Pacific Islands, is under review. It is faced with the possibility of staff cuts, reduced services and space. Access to the Library by non-AusAid staff is also under review. The disposition of the holdings of the Library, the project reports in particular, will be a matter of concern to Pacific researchers.
It should be noted that the Hallstrom Pacific
Collection, a special collection which was held in the ASOPA Library,
has now been transferred to the University of NSW Library.
|
PMB 1158 AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL OF PACIFIC ADMINISTRATION: reports, correspondence and related papers, 1946-1992. 2 reels. (Available for reference.) |
PMB Field Trip to Honolulu, Majuro, Yap and Nauru 17 Oct - 22 Nov 2000
This fieldwork was carried out in response to the PMB Management Committee's decision in November 1999 to commence a sustained program in Micronesia by making a survey visit to Palau, Guam, FSM and the Marshall Islands during 2000. The Committee envisages a long term Micronesian program which would be developed in a systematic way in consultation with regional organisations.
The fieldtrip was timed to include the conference of the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives (PIALA) in Guam. Contacts made at the conference and elsewhere on the trip indicate a number of projects which may be undertaken by the Bureau in Micronesia: a series on Micronesian constitutions; archives of the Catholic Diocese of the Caroline Islands, Chuuk; Marshall Islands High Court judgements; and others.
The fieldwork undertaken on this trip focused on two projects which were developed in advance by the Bureau in conjunction with local institutions. Giff Johnson's Marshall Islands Resource Materials held at the College of the Marshall Islands in Majuro were arranged, listed and partly microfilmed. Yap Constitutional Convention files held in the Yap State Archives in Colonia were microfilmed. The visit to Honolulu to microfilm the Marquesas Collection at the Mission Houses Museum was added to the trip as a cost-effective means of completing that particular project.
The 120 volt power supply in the American Pacific
caused some difficulties with the operation of the Bureau's 240 volt
Hirakawa camera. Several days' filming were lost as a consequence.
However 22 good quality reels were made consisting of the following
titles:
|
PMB 1170 HAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY,
Marquesas Collection, 1831-1834, 1853-1918. Reels 1-5. (Available for
reference.) PMB 1171 HAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY,
Marquesas Collection, 1831-1834, 1853-1918. English translations of
selected Hawaiian language documents. Reels 1-2. (Available for
reference.) PMB 1172 JOHNSON, Gifford (1956- ): Marshall
Islands Resource Materials, 1970s-1980s. Reels 1-7. (Available for
reference.) PMB 1173 YAP STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
PAPERS, 1982. Reels 1-6. (Available for reference.) PMB Doc 447 MICRONESIA SUPPORT COMMITTEE BULLETIN, 1975-1982, and related publications, 1971-1990. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) |
Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, Mission Houses Museum
Some time ago Niel Gunson had suggested to Marilyn Reppun, the Society's Head Librarian, that she consider microfilming the Marquesas Collection. Ms Reppun discussed the possibility of microfilming with me at the Pacific Collections Conference in Honolulu in November 1998. The Society was very keen to have the microfilming done on site so as to provide maximum protection to the papers. The project was approved by the Director of the Mission Houses Museum and the Bureau members. A benefactor associated with the Society contributed towards the costs incurred by the Bureau.
The Mission Houses Museum is in downtown Hololulu on the site of the first Honolulu mission station established by the New England Congregationalists in 1822. The Library was built in 1950 to house the collections of the Mission Children's Society and the Hawaiian Historical Society. Together they compare with the Bishop Museum and the State Archives as "one of the most comprehensive collections of Hawaiian literature and related materials in existence." (Mission Houses Museum Library leaflet.) The collections are housed in a fully climate controlled vault which is closed to the public.
The Marquesas Collection, 1831-1834, 1853-1918, consists of 2.5 linear metres of manuscript material including personal letters, formal reports of general meetings and mission station reports. Letters by native Hawaiian missionaries to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association in Honolulu are in the Hawaiian language. A portion of these letters were translated into English in the 1930s by Rev. Henry Pratt Judd, a member of the Hawaiian Board of Missions and the grandson of American Protestant missionary, Gerrit P. Judd.
Although the translations are kept in the same folders as the original documents, Ms Reppun suggested that the originals and translations be microfilmed as separate record groups in order to privilege the Hawaiian language originals. In other respects the microfilming followed the original order of the documents. Ms Reppun compiled the reel lists, standardising the existing item descriptions and, in some cases, elaborating them. (See PMB 1170 & PMB 1171 reel lists.)
Ms Reppun also helped me replace a socket and clamp for one of the camera's lamps, which had been smashed in transit. The other camera difficulties were more serious. Brian Daniel, an inventive friend of Barbara Dunn, the HHS Director, kindly built an adaptor to take power from two of the standard US 120 volt circuits to run the Bureau's 240 volt camera and lights. Mr Daniel's adaptor delivered about 200-220 volts - enough to power the camera - and I used it again in Majuro and Yap. There was however also a problem with the film feed which recurred throughout the trip. Advanced Micro Imaging Systems, a Honolulu microfilming studio, processed our films of the Marquesas Collection at intervals during the project, including test films, so that we were assured of a good result.
The Library also holds a Micronesian Collection of
reports from Hawaiian missionaries in Micronesia, 1852-1900, together
with Micronesian grammars, a large collection of publications in
Micronesian languages (currently on loan to the Bishop Museum) and some
Nauru Mission material from the German period to 1915, all of which may
be available for microfilming. The Library also holds the following
journals, noted in relation to the Bureau's plan to microfilm Pacific
scientific serials:
Giff Johnson Papers, College of the Marshall Islands Library
Giff Johnson is currently Editor of the Marshall Islands Journal. He was a freelance journalist, an organiser of the Micronesia Support Committee in Honolulu and Editor of its quarterly Bulletin, 1975-1983. He donated a set of his papers, which he called Marshall Islands Resource Materials, to the CMI Library in May 2000. Maxine Becker, the CMI Librarian, discussed the best way to preserve and disseminate this material with Karen Peacock who recommended that Ms Becker contact the Bureau. Consequently she invited the Bureau to help arrange and microfilm the papers.
The papers are held in 6 filing cabinet drawers in the CMI Library which is a secure, air-conditioned wing of the College. The papers were arranged in a filing system which Mr Johnson had roughly listed. One of the CMI Librarians and I removed rusting staples and clips from the papers, put them in chronological order and transferred them to new file covers. The existing file titles were maintained, but structured a little more systematically, and file numbers were imposed to keep them in order. (List available from the Bureau.) Ms Becker would eventually like to catalogue each document using the Library's Procite system. In the meantime the filing system should provide enough control to allow supervised research use of the materials.
The papers cover political status, Compact negotiations, constitutional development, education, health, military, nuclear tests, nuclear free Pacific, spying and waste dumping throughout Micronesia, with particular emphasis on the Marshalls and Palau, 1946-1994. They include a very strong selection of press cuttings. There is also a set of Johnson's Micronesia Support Committee correspondence, some minutes of the Committee, its publications, including the Bulletin, and some related serials.
There was not enough time to complete the microfilming
of the whole archive (I lost nearly two days with camera difficulties)
so, with the agreement of Mr Johnson and Ms Becker, I selected the
nuclear test files and the Micronesia Support Committee papers. (See
PMB 1172 and PMB Doc 447 reel lists at Appendix 3 & 4.) The
microfilming would be completed on a return visit in 2001. In the
meantime Mr Johnson said that he would try to make time to mark what he
considered to be the most important documents, especially some crucial
press reports.
Yap Constitutional Convention Papers, 1982
Richard Overy, the State Archivist, had invited the Bureau to microfilm the Convention papers and had also indicated that the Yap Legislature Journal, a verbatim transcript of its proceedings, may be available for microfilming.
The Constitutional Convention papers are held in the Archives which is located within the Government Supply Building, an old concrete US Naval Store. The Archives has two airconditioned rooms, one on top of the other, with no external entry or exit points, no public entrance and no windows. There are also additional storage areas elsewhere in the Supply Building for non-current records awaiting assessment. The Archives is equipped with one computer, two 16mm microfilm cameras, a reader-printer, developing sinks, but no chemicals.
The microfilming equipment is a legacy of its beginnings as the Office of Microfilm following the deposit of microfilms of the US Trust Territory archives in 1989. The Yap State Archives and Records Management Act was passed in 1998 with the intention of broadening the role of the Archives beyond microfilming which in fact had never been systematically undertaken. Despite the new Act, Mr Overy had encountered some difficulty in persuading Government administrators to transfer records to the Archives. During my visit it was announced that the site of the Supply Building would be redeveloped and that the Archives would have to find new accommodation by mid 2001.
The Constitutional Convention Papers were arranged in good order according to a registered filing system which I followed religiously when making the microfilm. All the documents were microfilmed except the draft transcripts and some of the lower level accounts. Mr Overy's Assistant Manager, Philip Raffilpiy, gave considerable help with the microfilming. One reel was lost due to faulty film feed and had to be re-filmed. (See PMB 1172 Reel List.)
Mr Overy and I discussed access to and distribution of the Constitutional Convention microfilms with Aloysius Fong, Director of the Office of Administrative Services and with Gabriel Ramoloilung, Manager Computer & Archives, Office of Administrative Services - Finance. They had some concerns about copyright, in particular the possibility of an outside party pirating the microfilm, but accepted assurances that this was unlikely.
With the support of the Speaker of the Legislature, Hon. Robert Ruecho, a broken set of the Yap Legislature Journal, 1984-1993, was located and listed. More recent issues of the Journal are still on disk and have not been printed. There may be (8-inch) disk copies of the missing issues of the Journal. Unfortunately there was no time to microfilm the Journal due to the time lost with camera difficulties. However Mr Overy indicated that the Archives may well be inspired, following the Bureau's visit, to undertake the microfilming of the Journals.
During the visit Mr Overy put me up at his house at
Gachpar, near Gagil in the northern part of Yap - a pleasant place
looking out at the lagoon, not far from a Yap men's house (still in
use) and a WWII Japanese bunker. I am very grateful for Mr Overy's
hospitality and for the opportunity to converse with him about Pacific
archives, beachcombers and adventurers.
Nauru
Nauru was hot and dry with scarcely any freshwater. Frigate birds soared above the waves in the early morning. Stopping over for 18 hours on the return trip, I met Julie Olsson who, as Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, had attended the PARBICA 8 conference in Suva in 1999. Ms Olsson is now Secretary for the Ministry of Sports, so her role in Nauruan archives administration is limited. Nevertheless she maintains a strong interest in archival matters.
Ms Olsson had made preliminary investigations which indicated that PMB microfilming projects may be possible with some records of the Police, the Nauru Phosphate Company and the Nauru Lands Committee. However there was no time to survey the records concerned or meet the relevant authorities. We did however survey a store room holding several hundred reel to reel sound recordings from Nauru and all over the Pacific islands. The recordings are held by Mr Michael Dekarube, Director of Nauru Television, who asked for advice on the best means to preserve the recordings.
Ms Olsson also took me to visit the Bank of Nauru searching for a microfilm reader. The Bank had not replied to her inquiries about the reader. We were directed to a derelict house where we found a Canon MP90 reader-printer with 16mm carriage, together with a 16mm Minolta camera and developer in unused condition. The MP90 can be adapted to accept 35mm microfilm.
Ms Olsson is keen to access German administration and British Phosphate Commission records relating to Nauru land issues. She would also like to have annual reports on the Nauru Mandate. The Bureau has microfilmed the annual reports, but there may be duplicate hardcopies which would be more useful in Nauru than microfilm. The German administration records, including the land registers, were microfilmed by the National Archives of Australia. Copies of the microfilm were to be sent to Nauru. It was not clear where such records could be accommodated in Nauru. Ms Olsson indicated that the Nauru Phosphate Company Library may be a possibility.
Ms Olsson would also like to locate a translation of
the Nauru sections of Paul Hambruch's, Sudseemarchen [Nauru: results of
the South Seas Expedition], 1914 or 1916(?). The translation was made
for the Commission of Inquiry into the Rehabilitation of the Worked-Out
Phosphate Lands of Nauru, 1987 (Commissioner Weeramantry). Would any
reader who may be able to help locate the translation please contact
the Bureau?
Ewan Maidment
PMB Executive Officer
Feb 2001
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (PCANZ) Archives, Dunedin, New Zealand
"We have just launched our Foreign Mission Archives site at the URL below. Our holdings include the NZ Presbyterian Church's work in Vanuatu from the 1860s until today. In Asia, the work was in South China (Canton) [, and India]. [...] In due course we will have included other fields of work in Indonesia and Papua/New Guinea. That is some time down the track." http://nzfmc.freeyellow.com
Site content has notes on the Mission organisation, an overview of the archives, and statements on its importance and arrangement, together with a note on researching the original material.
The site also has finding aids for: Foreign Missions Committee Papers 1901-1935, Missions Committee Papers 1936-1948, Overseas Missions Committee Papers 1949-1975, New Hebrides Mission Papers.
There is also a New Hebrides Mission History and photographs from the Mission. The site includes a Mission sound archives, excerpts from historic Missionary addresses recorded in 1939, and an in memoriam section, short biographical tributes with photos.
From Matthew Ciolek, The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: mid May 2001, Vol. 8, No. 14 (146).
|
Rhys Richards Published jointly by the Hawaiian Historical Society and the
Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. |
Recent Pambu Microfilm Titles: Manuscripts and Printed Document Series
| PMB 1163 | PAPUA NEW GUINEA MARITIME WORKERS INDUSTRIAL UNION: archives and press cuttings, 1970-1997. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1164 | GROVES, William Charles (1898-1967): papers relating to education in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Reels 1-6. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB 1165 | LOSUIA DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea: archives, 1927-1994. Reels 1-6. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1166 | SOUTH PACIFIC AND OCEANIA COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS: archives, 1990-1998. (In preparation.) |
| PMB 1167 | SACK, Dr Peter: collected reports on land and related matters in Papua New Guinea, 1960-1979. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) (Available for reference.) | PMB 1168 | WARD, Professor Alan: papers on Pacific land matters. (In preparation.) |
| PMB 1169 | FARDON, Rev Ian: papers on the Methodist Church in Rabaul and related documents on Papua New Guinea history and education, 1940-1975. Reels 1-3. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1170 | HAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY, Marquesas Collection, 1831-1834, 1853-1918. Reels 1-5. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB 1171 | HAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY, Marquesas Collection, 1831-1834, 1853-1918. English translations of selected Hawaiian language documents. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1172 | HAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY, Marquesas Collection, 1831-1834, 1853-1918. English translations of selected Hawaiian language documents. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB 1173 | YAP STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION PAPERS, 1982. Reels 1-6. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1174 | J. T. ARUNDEL & CO, Australian Office, 1892-1899. (In preparation.)(Available for reference.) |
| PMB 1175 | PACIFIC ISLANDS COMPANY, London Office. (In preparation.) | PMB 1176 | PACIFIC ISLANDS COMPANY, Australian Office. (In preparation.) |
| PMB 1177 | LOSUIA DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea: archives, 1920s-1974. Microfilms made by Jerry Leach. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1178 | SEPIK DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, Papua New Guinea: monthly and quarterly reports and related papers, 1939-1962. 1 reel. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB 1179 | FOX, John R., and LEAHY, Daniel: interview transcripts, 1973. 1 reel. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1180 | HILDER, Captain Brett (1911-1981): a research tribute by the Retired Officers Association of Papua New Guinea. 1 reel. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB 1181 | MELROSE, Robert (1890-1959): diary of escape from Salamaua, Territory of New Guinea, 22 Jan-19 Feb 1942. 1 reel. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1182 | WIGLEY, Stanley C. (1963 -2000): papers on tuberculosis control in PNG and related matters, -1987. (In preparation.) |
| PMB 1183 | DIAMOND, A. I. (1924- ): biography of Edwin James Turpin, an earlier settler in Fiji, 1971. 1 reel. (Available for reference.) | PMB 1184 | ARCHER, Fred Palmer (1890-1977): papers relating to plantations in Wuvulu, Bougainville and Buka, Papua New Guinea, 1923-1974. 2 reels. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB Doc 435 | PAPUAN COURIER (Port Moresby), 1920-1924. 2 reels. (Available for reference.) | PMB Doc 444 | TE ITOI NI KIRIBATI (Catholic Mission, Tarawa, Kiribati), 1952-1992, gaps. Reels 1-5. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB Doc 445 | JOINT REGULATIONS OF THE NEW HEBRIDES: a consolidated edition of the Joint Regulations in force on the 18 October 1973. Prepared under the authority of the Resident Commissioners. Vols. 1-3. 1973. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) | PMB Doc 446 | THE BRITISH LAWS OF THE NEW HEBRIDES in force on 22 Sep 1971. Prepared by B. C. Ballard under authority of Revised Edition of Laws Regulation 1971. Vols. 1-3. 1 reel. (Available for reference.) |
| PMB Doc 447 | MICRONESIA SUPPORT COMMITTEE BULLETIN, 1975-1982, and related publications, 1971-1990. Reels 1-2. (Available for reference.) | Microfilm prices | Australia: North America and Japan: All other countries: Contact The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau for freight rates to your city/region/state/country. |
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