PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAUasiapacific.anu.edu.au/pambu/docs/PAMBU 40 years of... · There was no...

PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAU Room 4201, Coombs Building

Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies

The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia

Telephone: (612) 6125 2521 Fax: (612) 6125 0198 E-mail: [email protected]

Web site: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu

PAMBU: 40 years of archival collaboration in the Pacific Islands.

Paper for PARBICA, ARANZ, ASA Conference, Brisbane, 12-17 October 2009.

This paper is given to celebrate the 40 years of Pacific Manuscripts Bureau operations. It

coincides with a period of transition in the Bureau’s management. Prof Brij Lal, the chair of

the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Management Committee since 1994, is nearing retirement; I

am in a transition to retirement; Kylie Moloney has been appointed as PMB archivist with a

view to taking over the management of the Bureau. At the PMB management committee

meeting in May 2009 member libraries asked the Bureau’s staff to conduct a survey of the

existing PMB collections so they can make a more informed decisions about the future

strategic direction of Pambu projects.

Pambu resources are minimal – time is short and maintaining momentum has been a key

factor in the Bureau’s survival – therefore, in order to economise, this paper combines

celebration and review.

A natural reference point for both celebration and review, and thus this paper, is Robert

Langdon’s unpublished report, “Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: pros and cons of its

continuance”, written as he was retiring from the Bureau in April 1986.1 Langdon’s style is

blunt and focused on the question of whether the Bureau would be able to continue to operate

after his departure. Langdon reported on the Bureau’s history, goals, budget, achievements

and opportunities.

Robert Langdon (1924-2006) in retirement.

First PMB Executive Officer, 1968-1986.

This paper follows a similar format, but also locates the work of the Bureau in context of the

development of archives administration in the Islands.

But first a celebration…

1 Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: pros and cons of its continuance after 15 April 1986, unpublished report,

Canberra, PMB, n.d., c.July 1985: Ts., 10pp, appendices.

http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu


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Lolowai, Ambai, July 2009.

Robert Langdon made nine PMB expeditions to the Islands, to Vanuatu (twice), Tahiti,

Norfolk Island, Fiji, Niue, Western Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Samoa, using a portable

Hirakawa microfilm camera to copy documents. The acronym, Pambu, became well known

throughout the Islands. Langdon’s first microfilming expedition, in April-May 1969, was to

Vanuatu (the New Hebrides) where he had established contacts during his visits for the

Pacific Islands Monthly in 1963 and 1966. On Tangoa Island, South Santo, Langdon filmed

records of the Presbyterian Training Institute just before it closed after 75 years of operation.

He then flew in heavy weather to Aoba Island (Ambai) to visit Archdeacon Derek Rawcliffe

of the Melanesian Mission at Lolowai.

In July 2009, by chance 40 years later, I undertook follow-up fieldwork for the Bureau at

Lolowai, working with Bishop Terry Brown, the Church of Melanesia archivist, at the

invitation of the Anglican Bishop of Vanuatu, James Ligo, who was concerned about the state

of the Vanuatu Diocesan archives in Lolowai and Luganville.

Bob Langdon’s dramatic account of his trip conveys some of the excitement and difficulties 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 north-eastwards 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…


3

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.

Terminal at Longana airstrip, Ambai, July 2009, Bishop Terry Brown and

Rev. Simeon Targinago, the Senior Priest, Church of Melanesia, Ambai, July 2009.

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 was turned 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.2

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 stormy enough for a 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.

In July this year Bishop Terry Brown and I flew in to Longana airstrip from Port Vila in a

Chinese Harbin aircraft, also through stormy weather, and caged a lift in a four-wheel drive

2 Langdon, Every Goose a Swan, Vol.2, Ch.60. unpublished (PMB 1230).


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vehicle through the rain along the same road to Togil, then walked over to Lolowai. We met

Rev. Simeon Targinago, the Senior Priest, and Rev. Judah Butu, the former Diocesan

Education Officer, who were not expecting our visit. Over lunch they explained that few

Diocesan records remained in Lolowai as most had been transferred to Santo when the

Diocesan HQ moved in 1980. Rev. Butu was aware that Pambu had microfilmed Melanesian

Mission records at Lolowai previously and he mentioned that at one stage a part of the PMB

microfilm had been used to retrieve copies of Lolowai land records.

Rev. Judah Butu, the former Vanuatu Diocesan Education

Officer, Church of Melanesia, at Lolowai, July 2009, at a memorial

for Rev. Charles Godden, murdered at Lolowai in 1906.

That afternoon and the following day, on the veranda of the Cooperative Society at Lolowai,

Bishop Terry and I surveyed and arranged the records which Rev. Butu kept in the old

Education Office. Selected files were microfilmed on the veranda over the next three days,

using power supplied by a generator owned by Mrs Losdalyn Leodoro. The files consisted of

Diocesan education administration papers from the late 1970s until the present and some of

Rev. Butu’s personal papers. Some of the papers document the struggle for independence in

Vanuatu, including papers of the Trained Teachers’ Association relating to a teachers’ strike

in 1979, and other papers documenting the New Hebrides Cultural Association, the Vanuaaku

Pati, and texts of speeches by Rev. Butu and others. Some papers of Penama Provincial

Council of Women, and its predecessors, belonging to his mother, Joce Butu, in very poor

condition, were also microfilmed. In addition, Mr Clemson, the Principal of St Patrick’s

Secondary College, brought one box of College archives, including the College log books

1923-1946, 1963-1974, which were microfilmed on 10 July and on the morning of 11 July,

just before we left for Luganville in Santo.

Loloawi Credit Union


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BishopTerry Brown, surveying papers at Lolowai,

July 2009, microfilm camera in background.

Bishop Brown and I continued on by plane to Santo in the afternoon and were met at the

Santo Airport by Bishop James Ligo who took us to the old Diocesan administration offices at

Sarataka, in Luganville, adjacent to the Holy Spirit Church. The Diocesan administration has

shifted to new premises.

The Diocesan Secretary, Mr George Salili, reported that, several years previously, some early

Diocesan records had been put in storage in a room at the back of the Church, but the roof had

leaked, the records were badly damaged and eventually had to be burnt. In 2007 Mr Salili had

instructed the cleaner to save the more recent administrative records held in the administration

building by packing them into the cartons.

Bp. James Ligo, Sarataka, Luganville, July 2009.

There were 111 cartons of records in the old building in tumbled-down stacks. Many of the

cartons were broken. Some damaged by rats and insects. There was mould in some of the

paper though, by and large, the paper was dry.

Bishop Brown and I shifted the cartons from a storeroom into a larger room and arranged

them as best we could, according to their labels. We examined the contents of a number of the

broken and unlabelled cartons and found some series of Bishops’ and Diocesan Secretary’s

files, a great deal of low level financial records, and large amounts of loose paper, but no

substantial body of Diocesan archives from the period when the HQ was at Lolowai. Among

the loose papers we identified some early Diocesan land records, copies of Diocesan Synod

and Council minutes, correspondence and other papers of Bishop Rawcliffe, and papers of the

subsequent Bishops (Bp Harry Tevi, Bp Michael Tavoa and Bp Huw Blessing Boe), together

with issues of the Diocesan journal, One Bread, which was published during Bishop

Rawcliffe’s time.

There was no power at the old administration building until the final day of my visit. I began

microfilming Bishop Rawcliffe’s papers in the hotel room on the evening of 13 July. After

lunch on 14 July Mr Salili obtained a very long extension cord which allowed us to tap power

from a distant part of the old administration building. With power connected, I was able to

continue microfilming the Rawcliffe papers and early Diocesan land records through that

afternoon and night.


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Repacked Diocesan records at Sarataka, Luganville,

July 2009

The cartons were re-sealed, and in some cases replaced, top-numbered, listed, and stacked on

makeshift pallets in a store room in the old administration building. Unexpectedly Bishop

Brown found some time to continue the survey after I left, opening and sorting a further 20 or

25 cartons, and locating more correspondence of Bishop Rawcliffe dating from the 1950s and

other material dating from at least the 1930s.

The old administration building at Sarataka is likely to be demolished by late in 2010. Under

the protection of Bishop Ligo and Mr Salili, the records will be secure for the time being, but

not safe from damage by rodents, insects, water or fire. Bishop Brown and I agreed on the

possibility of returning to complete the survey, arrangement and microfilming of the Diocesan

archives in February or March 2010, which also suits Bishop Ligo.

Institutional context of PMB establishment3

Pacific archives administration developed after the Second World War on two main fronts:

Pacific research libraries pursuing bibliographic and copying projects; and colonial

administrations organising public record keeping of government archives. The Department of

Pacific History at the Australian National University had an instrumental role on both fronts.

In Australia, Pacific collections, for example those of David Scott Mitchell, Sir John

Ferguson, Edward Petherick and Rex Nan Kivell, arising out of 18th

and 19th

century imperial,

commercial, mission and scientific interests in the Pacific frontier4, formed the nuclei of

Australiana collections of the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Australia. They

3 Detailed accounts of the context of Pambu operations have been given elsewhere: A. Cunningham, ‘The Pacific

Manuscripts Bureau: history and recent developments’ Australian Academic and Research Libraries, Vol.26,

No.4, Dec 1995, pp.237-242; Monica Wehner and Ewan Maidment. ‘Ancestral Voices: Aspects of Archives

Administration in Oceania’, Archives and Manuscripts, 27, May 1999, pp.22-41; Ewan Maidment, ‘Who is

collecting Pacific Island archives in Australia now?’ in Susan Cochrane and Max Quanchi (eds), Hunting the

Collectors: Pacific Collections in Australian Museums, Art Galleries and Archives, Newcastle UK, Cambridge

Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp.307-325; Ewan Maidment, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Impact on Archives

Administration in the Pacific Region in relation to Australian Involvement in the Development of Pacific Islands

Archives, draft submission to the Review of the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University,

13 July 2008; Ts., 12pp. 4 See John M.R. Young, Australia’s Pacific Frontier: Economic and Cultural Expansion into the Pacific: 1795-

1885, Melbourne, Cassell Australia, 1967.


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were further developed after WWII by specialist Pacific librarians, such as Phyllis Mander-

Jones and Ida Leeson.5

Similarly, in New Zealand, the Alexander Turnbull Library, part of the National Library of

New Zealand since 1966, has a New Zealand and Pacific collection, the nucleus of which

consists of Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull’s collection bequeathed to the State in 1918, and

includes the National Historical Collection transferred to the care of the Alexander Turnbull

Library in 1921, and the collection of the Polynesian Society.

The public libraries combined to support the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP),

established in 1948 by the Commonwealth National Library to microfilm archives and

manuscripts in the UK relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The

Alexander Turnbull Library joined the project in 1953 and the filming of the Colonial office

records relating to New Zealand and Fiji commenced shortly afterwards.6

The Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) was

established after the War in part to maintain the research effort commenced by the Allied

Geographical Section of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) Command, and to meet

Australian foreign policy needs. Similar strategic and commercial interests were factors in

developing Pacific collections at the University of Hawaii, the University of California at

Santa Cruz and, later, at the University of California San Diego.

The first Professor of Pacific History at the Australian National University, Jim Davidson,

gave serous consideration to Pacific archival matters in his inaugural lecture, The Study of

Pacific History, given in November 1954.

Generally speaking, the records in the metropolitan countries are in a state in which

they can be used for research. In the islands, on the other hand, under conditions of

poor accommodation, inadequate staffing, and a tropical climate, records have got

lost and mislaid or have physically deteriorated to the point at which, very often,

they cannot be used even when they are located. This problem, fortunately, is now

beginning to worry governments as well as historians; and the time seems propitious

for a combined attempt by all who are interested, from the point of view either of

administration or research, to put records in the islands into proper order before

further losses occur.7

Under Professor Davidson’s direction, scholars in the Department of Pacific History, such as

Richard Gilson and Hank Driesson, helped locate Pacific archives in Britain and Europe,

transferred Samoan colonial archives to New Zealand, and began to organise the Western

Pacific Archives. In 1953 Professor Davidson negotiated the appointment of an ANU

5 Nancy Lutton commented, “Australia … collectively houses, probably, the richest collections of resources

about the Pacific anywhere in the world”, in her ‘Pacific Collections in Australia’, LAA/NZLA Joint Conference,

Libraries after 1984: proceedings of the LAA/NZLA Conference, Brisbane 1984, Sydney, Library Association of

Australia, 1985. 6. After the State Library of NSW withdrew from the AJCP in 1988, the "AJCP progressed under the sole

direction of the National Library [of Australia] for a further five years, but with continuing support from the State

Library of Victoria, the National Library of New Zealand and the National Archives of New Zealand and, to a

lesser extent, other State and university libraries", producing four thousand rolls of microfilm before the Project

wound up in 1993. AJCP Handbook (Pt.1, Introduction), p.5 7 J.W. Davidson. The Study of Pacific History: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered at Canberra on 25 November

1954, Canberra, Australian National University, 1955; p.23;


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researcher, Dorothy Crozier, as the first government archivist in Fiji, jointly funded by the

ANU and the Western Pacific High Commission. Ms Crozier moved the archives into stable

accommodation and calendared key series.8

The major work establishing and operating the Central Archives of Fiji and the Western

Pacific High Commission was carried out by Dorothy Crozier’s successors, Ian Diamond and

Bruce Burne, both expatriate Australian professional archivists who had commenced their

careers in the Archives Division of the Commonwealth National Library (later the

Commonwealth Archives, now the National Archives of Australia). Diamond and Burne

constructed one of the finest and most accessible colonial archives in the world.

Diamond wrote that the establishment of the Central Archives of Fiji on 30 December 1953,

the first institution of its kind in Oceania, was “something of a prodigy”. The Archives was set

up, he observed, “not primarily for its practical value as an aid to efficient administration,

though of course this was a consideration, but because of a recognition on the part of both

[Fijian and Western Pacific] governments of an obligation to conserve their early records.”9

Under the direction of Diamond and Burne, the staff of the Central Archives arranged and

described the archives of the Western Pacific High Commission, the Colony of Fiji, the

British Solomon Islands Protectorate, the New Hebrides British Service, the Gilbert and Ellice

Islands Colony, and the British Consul in Tonga.10

The National Archives of the Solomon Islands, established in 1980, along

with government archives repositories in Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu,

following the dissolution of the Western Pacific High Commission.

8 Dorothy Crozier also surveyed archives in Tonga, collecting a large proportion of the papers of Rev. Shirley

Baker, the first Premier of Tonga, which she retained in her private possession for the rest of her life. 9 A.I. Diamond, ‘The Establishment of the Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific High Commission’,

Archives and Manuscripts, 1:8, May 1965; p.4. 10 With the dissolution of the WPHC in 1978, Bruce Burne oversaw the establishment of national archival

institutions in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, including construction of the repository in

Honiara which was intended to accommodate the archives of the WPHC Secretariat. Key indigenous staff, for

example Benjamin Piri in the Solomons and Kunei Etekira in Kiribati, had been trained by Diamond and Burne

in Suva. Burne also arranged the return of local colonial administration archives to all those repositories, except

Vanuatu where the archives of the New Hebrides British Service were re-directed to London by British colonial

officials, along with the WPHC Secretariat archives, much to the chagrin of Burne and others. Burne also helped

initiate formation of the regional archives peak council, the Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council

on Archives (PARBICA).


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In Papua New Guinea another Australian archivist, Jim Gibbney, who had been a colleague of

Ian Diamond in the Archives Division of the National Library of Australia, surveyed the

administration records which survived WWII producing a report which resulted in the

establishment of an Archives Office in the Territory of PNG in 1957, now operating as the

PNG National Archives and Public Records Services, with a repository in Waigani built by

the Australian government in 1975 as an independence gift.

Harry Maude, a Pacific bibliophile, came to the Department of Pacific History at the ANU in

1958 from the South Pacific Commission. In the period 1951-1957 as Director of the SPC’s

Social Development Section, based in Sydney, where he worked with Ida Leeson, Maude had

organised the Project for the Preservation of Manuscripts on Island Languages, a series of 80

microfilms of rare Pacific language grammars, dictionaries and vocabularies.11

Microfilming was deployed as the standard tool for mass reformatting of archives in order to

facilitate access and preservation, not only by the AJCP, but also by the Central Archives in

Suva which, from the 1960s, under the direction of Diamond and Burne, undertook a

systematic program of microfilming records of the Fiji colonial administration and the

Western Pacific High Commission.

Establishment and Administration of the Bureau, 1968-1986

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau began in 1968 as a bibliographic and microfilming project,

based in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University. The

idea was initiated in 1963-64 in discussions between Floyd Cammack, then Assistant

Librarian at the University of Hawai’i, and Harry Maude. Camack canvassed the formation of

an Association of Pacific Research Libraries. Maude announced his interests in the “location,

copying and making available for research of manuscript material of all kinds relating to the

Pacific Islands”.12

In 1966 the joint copying scheme was pursued by Gordon Richardson, Mitchell Librarian and

Principal Librarian of the NSW Public Library, in discussion with Ralph Shaw, Dean of

Library Activities at the University of Hawai’i.13

In March 1967, at the request of Richardson

and Shaw, Maude produced a paper, “The Documentary Basis for Pacific Studies”14

, outlining

a strategy for a Pacific Islands Manuscripts Clearing Centre, based at the ANU, sponsored by

Pacific research libraries, to seek, catalogue and microfilm unpublished documents on the

11 When he left the SPC Social Development Section, Maude handed over the project and its microfilm negatives

to the National Library, but the project was not continued. 12

G.D. Richardson to H.E. Maude, 14 Nov 1966. 13

“Broadly, what is in mind is the establishment of a cooperative venture between, particuarly the Mitchell

Library, the National Library and/or the Australian National University, the National Library of New Zealand and

the University of Hawaii, for preparing an inventory of existing Pacific material, whether in original or in

microfilm, followed by a detailed investigation of the nature and whereabouts of other manuscripts, especially in

the Pacific Islands themselves. This in turn would be followed by, or perhaps be contemporaneous with, copying

of such materials wherever they appear to be worthwhile and provided of course that permission can be obtain for

this from their owners.” G.D. Richardson to H.E. Maude, 14 Nov 1966. 14

The Documentary Basis for Pacific Studies: A Report of Progress and Desiderata, by H.E. Maude,

Professorial Fellow in Pacific History, Canberra, Australian National University, Research School of Pacific

Studies, 23 March, 1967. Duplicated typescript, 48pp., appendices.


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Pacific Islands some of which were felt to be at immediate risk of loss or destruction due to

environmental and other factors.15

An Agreement for the establishment and operation of the Clearing Centre was concluded

between the ANU, the University of Hawai’i Library, the National Library of New Zealand,

the Public Library of NSW and the National Library of Australia.

The agreement came into effect on 1 January 1968. Robert Langdon, who was headhunted

from the Pacific Islands Monthly by Professor Maude, was appointed to the position of

secretary-manager (later, executive officer) of the Clearing Centre on 16 April 1968, without

advertisement, recognising his unique qualifications – a combination of business skills, sound

knowledge of the Pacific Islands, their history and documentation, and an extensive

publishing record in the field. On 1 July 1968 the Pacific Islands Manuscripts Clearing Centre

was declared fully operational under a new name, the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, suggested

by Langdon. The structure of the Bureau had been built, but its means of operation were not

clear to Langdon. Maude sent Langdon to Richardson for advice.

Richardson, whom I had long known by sight, was a brisk, no-nonsense man of middle

height with short-cropped hair and bristling eyebrows. He had the most decided ideas

on what the Bureau should do and what its priorities should be. Because of the ravages

of silverfish, white ants, mildew, floods, hurricanes and other paper-destroying agents

in the tropics, he said, the first priority should be to locate and obtain copies of

documents of value in the Pacific Islands. Of almost equal urgency was the location

and copying of documents in private hands outside the Islands. Next was the

cataloguing and copying of documents in repositories most distant from the Bureau's

member libraries, followed by the same plan for the closer ones. Finally, if the

reservoir of documents in private hands and non-member institutions ever dried up,

then the Bureau could arrange for the interchange of copies of documents held by the

member libraries themselves.

Richardson felt that seeking out manuscripts in the Islands was so urgent that, in the

main, it would be a waste of time, manpower and money to concentrate on other

aspects of the Bureau's overall plan for the time being. What I should be doing, he

said, was preparing costed estimates for field surveys in the Pacific, preparing the way

for them by correspondence, acquiring a portable microfilm camera, and going off to

the Islands to microfilm whatever material could be found. He had always been under

the impression that I, personally, would make most of the field surveys, although all

such surveys would not necessarily have to be made by me. Because of costs, it would

clearly be impossible to copy every manuscript relating to the past that could be found,

so either I or some other competent person would have to assess them and decide their

potential value. Richardson also thought that far more material would be found on the

spot than by sitting in Canberra writing letters.

`If a field search in any one area is going to take six months, then go off to that place

for six months', he said.

15

Langdon reported, “It argued, Harry told me, that no library in Australia, New Zealand or Hawaii was doing

enough to collect primary documents on the Pacific Islands, with the result that none of them had a comprehensive

coverage of the materials needed to study those islands in depth. He had therefore proposed that the main libraries

should club together to set up a Pacific Islands Manuscripts Clearing Centre which would actively seek out such

documents and arrange for copies of them to be deposited in each of the sponsoring libraries. With Professor

Davidson's approval, the report also recommended that the centre should be set up in his own Department of Pacific

History at the ANU.” Langdon, Every Goose a Swan, Vol.2, Ch.58, unpublished (PMB 1230).


12

When I reported Richardson's views to Harry, he opined that they probably

represented those of the member libraries generally, and they became the Bureau's

guidelines from then on.16

Under its original arrangements, which continued until Langdon’s retirement in 1986, the

Bureau was not a joint management of a common enterprise, but performed a service on

behalf of the Pacific research libraries and the University. A fairly large support staff worked

at the Bureau from time to time, depending on availability of funds, including a secretary,

Anvida Lamberts, and indexers Marta Langridge, Gaye Tryon, Norah Forster, and others.

The Bureau’s production was divided into two parts.

Core production for the member libraries of the PMB Manuscript Series of microfilms

and the PMB Printed Document Series of microfilms. By the time Langdon retired in

1986 the Bureau had produced 1,152 reels in the PMB Manuscript Series and 525 reels

of 35mm microfilm in the Printed Document Series (on my count), as well as

publishing a dozen guides to Pacific archives and indexes to serials.

Special projects, financed by separate groups of library subscribers, including the

member libraries.

The special projects were:

New England Micofilming Project, 1970-72; carried out by John Cumpston, supported by 12

libraries (at $2,150 each), producing 213 reels;

PNG Records Project, 1973-76; carried out by Kevin Green, supported by 20 libraries (at

$2,000 each, plus an Australian Government grant of $10,000), producing 108 reels17

;

New England Microfilming Project, 1976-79, carried out by Cumpston, supported by 10

libraries (at $4,000 each), producing 215 reels;

Pacific Islands Monthly Cumulative Indexing Project, 1981-83, compiled by Margaret

Woodhouse and Gaye Tryon, and edited by Robert Langdon; supported by the 5 member

libraries (at $890 each), 12 other libraries (at $590 each), and the Research School of Pacific

Studies (at $490);

Oceania Marist Province Archives Project, 1984-1986, carried out by Fr Theo Cook SM,

supported by 7 libraries (at $4,000? each), producing 400 reels.

Langdon estimated that about 47.3% of the Bureau’s running costs, including his salary and

some operational expenses, were met by the University; the remainder having been made up

of annual contributions paid by the five18

PMB library members (28.3%) and income from

special projects (24.4%).19

16 Langdon, Every Goose a Swan, 2003, Vol.2, Ch.59, unpublished (PMB 1230). Richardson’s guidelines were

later formulated as, “Operating Instructions”, and appended to the 1986 revision of the PMB Agreement. An

amended version of the Operating Instructions is still current. 17

The PNG Records Project also produced 57(?) reels for the PMB Printed Document Microfilm Series. 18

The State Library of Victoria became an additional member in July 1970. 19 Langdon, Pros and Cons, p.6, Note, however, that Langdon understated the PMB member libraries’

contributions by not taking into account their substantial contributions (41.2%) to the funding of the PMB’s

special projects. Based on Langdon’s figures, a corrected estimate of the relative proportions of contributions to

the PMB running costs, 1968-1984, are: ANU – 43.7%, Library members – 38.5% , non-member contributions to

special projects – 14.2%. If income from sales of PMB microfilms and publications is included, the figures are:

ANU – 39%, Library members – 31.8%, non-members contributions to special projects – 11.7%, sales to non-

members - 17.5%. It can be noted further that 428 reels of microfilm produced by the New England Microfilming

Project and 108 produced by the PNG Records Project were funnelled into the PMB Manuscript Series — a large

proportion (46.5%) of the 1152 reels in the Manuscripts Series produced during Langdon’s time.


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Administration of the Bureau 1986 to the present

Following Langdon’s retirement, the Research School of Pacific Studies withdrew its direct

funding for the Bureau, arguing erroneously that “the ANU’s contribution to his [Langdon’s]

salary, and other minor contributions, amounted to about 63% of normal operations of the

PMB, or 47% of all operations including the separately funded ‘special projects’”, and

transferring its funds to an academic appointment in S.E. Asian history.20

Other scholars explored the possibility of continuing PMB operations at the ANU. Niel

Gunson wrote an updated, “Documentary Basis for Pacific Studies 1985: a report on

outstanding and new desiderata”.21

Professor Maude, in retirement, wrote supporting and

elaborating on Dr Gunson’s report, but added a word of caution:

I do not know what plans are envisaged for carrying on the work of the PMB

after Mr Langdon’s retirement but if it is proposed that he should have a

successor I would strongly advise against the choice of a librarian or

archivist, these being essentially sedentary workers trained to wait for

material to come to them and not to go out and seek it in often remote places,

carrying their microfilming equipment with them.22

The Bureau was reconstituted as a joint copying project with the support of six Pacific

research libraries: four of the five original sponsors –– the University of Hawai’i Library, the

Turnbull Library, the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Australia, (the State Library

of Victoria having withdrawn), plus two new members, the Library of the University of

California San Diego and the ANU Library. A new PMB Executive Officer was appointed:

Bess Flores, previously South Pacific Commission Librarian in Noumea.

The Bureau remained based in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, but housed

outside the Coombs Building. It maintained close links to the Department of Pacific and Asian

History, but was part of the Director’s Section for administrative purposes. A Management

Committee, consisting of representatives of the member libraries, two Pacific research

scholars and a Chairperson, Dr Gunson, appointed by the Director of the School, advised and

reviewed the operations of the Bureau. It was funded by annual subscriptions paid by the

member libraries. The School provided support in kind consisting of : scholastic expertese,

accommodation, accounting and IT support. The libraries agreed to increase their

subscriptions to $10,000pa. From 1986 to date the libraries’ subscriptions have amounted to

about 75-80% of the Bureau’s operating costs, including wages, the remainder being made up

from sales, supplementary project funding provided by project participants, grants and interest

on accumulated funds.

The Bureau ran into funding and staffing difficulties immediately following its reconstitution

in 1986, resulting in a drop in the level of production, the resignations of Bess Flores and her

successor, Gillian Scott, a crisis on the management committee, and intervention by the

National Library of Australia.

In 1993 a new Chair, Professor Brij Lal, was appointment and, in 1994, an officer of the NLA,

Adrian Cunningham, was seconded to the position of Executive Officer. The Bureau was

20

“PMB & Future Positions in PacSEA History”, n.d. (August 1985), Ts., 1p. 21

Canberra, October 1985, Ts., 15pp. 22

Maude to Gunson, 3 November 1985, Ts., 4pp.


14

moved back into the Coombs Building. Lal and Cunningham stabilised the Bureau’s

administration, pursued projects mapped out by the previous Executive Officer, Gillian Scott,

re-orientated new collecting projects toward more contemporary records held in the Islands,

commenced a vigorous program of fieldwork in the Islands, and sought additional library

members.

Professor Brij V. Lal, Pambu Chair,

1993-2013.

Since 1995, when I was appointed to the position of Executive Officer, the Bureau’s

administration has remained stable and library membership has increased to ten: The

additional members are: the University of Auckland which joined in 1996; Yale University

Library – 1999; Michigan University Library – 2005; Macmillan Brown Library, University of

Canterbury, Christchurch – 2008. In 2009, the Pacific Regional Branch of the International

Council on Archives (PARBICA), which has had an ex-officio representative on PMB

Management Committee since 1986, became an associate member of the Bureau in

recognition of our common interest in supporting the development of archives administration

in the Pacific Islands. The annual subscription was increased to $13,000 in 1996; and to

$15,000 in 2004.

Pambu Management Committee meeting, Suva, December 2008.

The Bureau remains handicapped in that key research libraries in the Pacific Islands, the

University of the South Pacific Library and University of PNG Library, have not joined the

Pambu consortium. On the other hand, the Bureau has developed close practical connections


15

with archives and libraries throughout the Islands on a bilateral basis, and also collectively

through the Bureau’s participation in PARBICA conferences and workshops.

In the period since 1995 PMB fieldwork in the Islands amounted to about three months in the

year (some 50 expeditions, including NZ, in the period 1995 to 2009), arranging, describing

and microfilming archives of Pacific churches and missions, planters, traders, politicians,

government agencies, judiciaries, scientists and researchers, as well as rare publications.

Priority was given to microfilming archives considered to be at risk of loss or destruction. For

example, the Bureau microfilmed archives in the offices of the Fiji Trades Union Congress

which had been firebombed during the 1987 coup; it microfilmed Levers Solomons Ltd

archives in the Russell Islands which were subsequently burnt during the crisis in the

Solomons. Working with the Endangered Archives Programme, the Bureau has just

completed microfilming and digitisation of the Ellice Islands District archives of the Gilbert

and Ellice Islands Colony, together with associated reports and newspapers, held in the Tuvalu

National Library and Archives on Funafuti atoll – helping to provide some insurance against

possible flooding by storms or rising sea levels.

Tuvalu National Library and Archives on the edge

of the lagoon at Funafuti, September 2007.

Tutuila Tekui and Tutaima Tolauapai digitising

documents at the Tuvalu National Library and

Archives, October 2006.

The Current Situation

Since its restructure the Bureau has maintained a bibliographic role. It has produced a

catalogue of Pacific photograph collections23

and it is in the process of compiling a catalogue

of Pacific movie films. It has helped publish Rhys Richards’ shipping arrivals and departures

lists for Honolulu and Tahiti.24

It has also branched into digital preservation reformatting of

audio, photographic and database archives. With permission of owners or custodians, about 70

of its microfilm titles (or parts of them) have been scanned to digital format at the request of

researchers. It is considering switching to digital supply of its reformatted materials to its

member libraries. Nevertheless the microfilm camera is still the Bureau’s principle

23

http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/online.html 24 Honolulu Centre of Trans-Pacific Trade: Shipping arrivals and departures 1820 to 1840 (Rhys Richards,

Comp.), Canberra, PMB and Hawaiian Historical Society, 2000; and Tahiti and the Society Islands: Shipping

arrivals and departures 1767-1852 (Rhys Richards and Robert Langdon), Canberra, PMB and Boglio Maritime

Books, 2008.


16

preservation reformatting tool and microfilm master negative is its main means of archival

preservation.

After Bill Coppell undertook microfilming of the archives of the Catholic Diocese of

Rarotonga and other papers in the Cook Islands in 1992, the Bureau ceased to contract out

microfilming in the Islands in order to protect its small budget. Funding for the Bureau’s

recent fieldwork projects in the Islands has been supplemented by in-kind support from

project partners, such as free or subsidised accommodation, or in some instances contributions

to the cost of processing the microfilm and/or digital format products scanned from the

microfilms. In any case the Bureau has undertaken each of its fieldwork archives reformatting

projects in close collaboration with owners, custodians and other interested parties. For

example, records of the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory were microfilmed and digitised in

2007 and 2009 in collaboration with the Observatory, the PNG National Archives which

undertook the initial records survey, and the RVO-GeoScience Australia Twinning Project

which, in conjunction with RVO staff, plans to produce a database of records on PNG

volcanic hotspots using, in part, digitised documents scanned from the PMB microfilms.

However, the Bureau’s rate of production of microfilms, as shown in the table below, did

decline after 1986. The reduction is explained by the hiatus during the years 1987-1993, by

the less favourable funding and staffing arrangements after Robert Langdon’s retirement, and

by the failure of the Bureau in the latter period to organise special projects supported by

separate consortia of libraries. Nevertheless the rate of production has remained high overall

and, since 1994, a steady 100 reels a year have been produced.

Numbers of reels produced by PMB, 1969-2009.

Reels in PMB

Manuscripts Series

Reels in

OMPA

Reels in PMB Printed

Doc Series

Total Reels

1968-1986 1152

(PMB 1-1000)

400 525

(PMB Doc 1-392

2077

1986-2009 1313

(PMB 1001-1335)

383

(PMB Doc 393-517)

1696

Totals 2,465 400 908 3773

Measured in terms of record groups, each record group amounting to a separate project for

administrative purposes, and therefore requiring a set minimum allocation of time and

resources, the Bureau’s output has been relatively consistent over the entire period of its

operation, as shown by the table below.

Numbers of separate record groups / titles microfilmed by the PMB 1969-2009

Record groups

in PMB Ms Series

Record

groups

in

OMPA

Titles PMB Printed

Document Series

Total

Record

Groups /

Titles

1968-1986 272

(PMB 1-1000*)

7 82

(PMB Doc 1-392

359

1986-2009 296

(PMB 1001-1335)

110

(PMB Doc 393-517)

406

Totals 568 7 192 767 * Not including the various whaleship logbooks and associated records microfilmed under the New England

Microfilming Project.


17

Assessing the regional coverage and content of the Manuscript Series microfilms, Langdon

applied the categories used by Maude in his Documentary Basis for Pacific Studies.25

(See

Appendix A.) An application of this categorization allows a comparison of the PMB’s

coverage and content to date.

Reels in PMB Manuscripts Series by Island Nation

PMB 1-1000,

1968-1986

PMB 1001+,

1986-2009

Total Ms. Series

GENERAL 573* 95 668

COOK ISLANDS 7 102 109

EASTER ISLAND 10 12 22

FIJI 63 161 224

FRENCH POLYNESIA

11 77 88

HAWAII 11 11

KIRIBATI (Incl.Banaba)

4 42 46

MICRONESIA 3 48 51

NAURU 3 99 102

NEW CALEDONIA 30 2 32

NIUE 17 14 31

NORFOLK ISLAND 9 1 10

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

155 311 466

SAMOA 42 66 108

SOLOMON ISLANDS

78 88 166

TONGA 68 52 120

TUVALU 2 46 48

VANUATU 42 75 117

WALLIS & FUTUNA

13 1 14

TOTALS 1141 1292 2433

* Includes NEMP (428 reels).

Regarding regional coverage, Langdon commented that, “the proportion of reels per country

on a population basis is reasonably even, considering the history of each country and the

disposition of non-government records relating to each.” The high proportion of PNG

microfilms, particularly since the restructure of the Bureau, can be defended on a population

basis, but in fact reflects the Bureau’s base in Australia and specifically the current scholarly

interest of the RSPAS in PNG. The increased coverage of Fiji reflects the Bureau’s focus on

more contemporary organisations and Professor Lal’s special interest in Fiji. The

disproportionate coverage of the Cook Islands is partly an outcome of the Bureau’s need to

balance the specific interests of its New Zealand members, particularly since Samoan

authorities continue to be very reluctant to allow wide public access to their records. The

improved coverage of Micronesia is an outcome of the Bureau’s energetic fieldwork program.

25 Langdon, Pros and Cons, p.7


18

Regarding the content of the PMB Manuscript Series, in the table below three new categories

have been added to Maude’s set in order to recognise records of non-government

organisations, including trade unions, judiciaries and scientific organisations.

Reels in PMB Manuscripts Series by Content

PMB 1-1000,

1968-1986

PMB 1001+,

1986-2009

Total Ms. Series

Govt records 39 194 233

Exploration 13 7 20

Travel /ethnography 47 21 68

Diaries, letters 71 101 172

Church / Mission records

322 362 684

Trading / shipping 56 100 156

Whaling records 430 430

Labour trade 2 3 5

Planters records 5 67 72

Miscellaneous 100 51 151

Political polemics 53 53

Vernacular 45 12 57

Unpublished research

11 132 143

NGOs, trade unions 59 59 Judiciaries 65 65 Scientific organisations

65 65

Totals 1141 1292 2433

Langdon pointed out that, “whaling and mission records account for well over half of the

Bureau's total output of films in this series” produced during his time. Church and mission

archives remain the most significant category but it should be noted that the PMB’s focus has

shifted from the regional metropolitan mission administrations to local indigenised churches

in the Islands. A steep shift in the PMB’s content coverage has been toward research records,

both unpublished research papers of individual scholars and records of scientific

organisations. It was beyond the Bureau’s capacity to handle the vast amount of uncontrolled

research papers, even at the ANU, which resulted in its successful advocacy for the formation

of the Pacific Research Archives at the ANU in order to administer such material.

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau has on on-going role in the development of archives

administration in the Pacific Islands, not only in vigorously continuing to pursue preservation

reformatting projects, but also in acting as a conduit for information, support and assistance

between the Islands and the Pacific rim. To this end the Bureau is attempted to consolidate its

staffing situation by moving from one professional full-time position to one and a half,

commencing in November 2008, pending my retirement in November 2011.

Ewan Maidment

PMB Executive Officer

October 2009

Appendix A.

MANUSCRIPTS IN PMB SERIES BY CATEGORY, PMB 1-PMB 1000, 1968-198626

Go

vt

reco

rds

Ex

plo

rati

on

Tra

vel

/eth

no

gra

ph

y

Dia

ries

, le

tter

s

Mis

sio

n r

eco

rds

Tra

din

g /

ship

pin

g

Wh

alin

g r

eco

rds

Lab

ou

r tr

ade

Pla

nte

rs r

eco

rds

Mis

cell

aneo

us

Po

liti

cal

po

lem

ics

Ver

nac

ula

r

Un

pu

bli

shed

rese

arch

To

tals

GENERAL 10 13 8 53 430 1 20 6 573

COOK

ISLANDS

1 2 1 1 1 1 7

EASTER

ISLAND

10 10

FIJI 2 4 40 10 1 3 1 2 63

FRENCH

POLYNESIA

1 4 2 4 11

HAWAII 4 6 1 11

KIRIBATI 1 2 1 4

MICRONESIA 1 2 3

NAURU 1 2 3

NEW

CALEDONIA -

1 23 6 30

NIUE 1 13 3 17

NORFOLK

ISLAND

1 4 4 9

PAPUA NEW

GUINEA

10 3 13 21 25 11 1 51 20 155

SAMOA 7 1 6 21 1 8 42

SOLOMON

ISLANDS

1 15 53 2 2 4 1 78

TONGA 16 2 2 47 1 68

TUVALU 1 1 2

VANUATU 5 3 26 1 3 4 42

WALLIS &

FUTUNA

9 4 13

Totals 39 13 47 71 322 56 430 2 5 100 45 11 1141

26

Langdon, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: pros and cons of its continuance after 15 April 1986, Appendix B.

Appendix B.

MANUSCRIPTS IN PMB SERIES BY CATEGORY, PMB 1001+, 1986-2009

Go

vt

reco

rds

Exp

lora

tio

n

Tra

ve

l

/eth

no

gra

ph

y

Dia

rie

s,

lett

ers

Mis

sio

n

reco

rds

Tra

din

g /

sh

ipp

ing

Wh

alin

g

La

bo

ur

tra

de

Pla

nte

rs

reco

rds

Mis

ce

llan

eo

u

s

Po

litic

al

po

lem

ics

Ve

rna

cu

lar

NG

Os,

tra

de

un

ion

s

Ju

dic

iari

es

Scie

ntific

org

an

isa

tio

ns

Un

pu

blis

he

d

rese

arc

h

To

tals

GENERAL 3 8 4 40 1 5 2 4 14 3 11 95

COOK ISLANDS

37 3 53 6 3 102

EASTER ISLAND

12 12

FIJI 8 14 10 45 6 31 28 12 7 161

FRENCH POLYNESIA

1 75 1 77

HAWAII

KIRIBATI (Incl.Banaba)

2 32 1 1 3 3 42

MICRONESIA 6 1 24 17 48

NAURU 5 94 99

NEW CALEDONIA

2 2

NIUE 14 14

NORFOLK ISLAND

1 1

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

47 6 5 48 55 17 14 2 2 9 62 44 311

SAMOA 7 1 1 57 66

SOLOMON ISLANDS

16 14 45 1 4 1 3 4 88

TONGA 8 5 6 27 6 52

TUVALU 43 2 1 46

VANUATU 7 11 19 4 2 1 5 1 25 75

WALLIS & FUTUNA

1 1

TOTALS 194 7 21 101 362 100 3 67 51 53 12 59 65 65 132 1292

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