British Western Pacific Territories

British Western Pacific Territories
1877–1976
Flag
Anthem:  God Save the Queen
Status	Colonial entity
Capital	Suva 1877–1952 Honiara 1952–1976
Common languages	English (official) Fijian, Tongan various Austronesian languages regionally
Government	Constitutional monarchy, colony
High Commissioner
• 1877–1880	Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon (1st)
• 1973–1976	Sir Donald Luddington (23rd and final)
Chief Judicial Commissioner
• 1877–1882	Sir John Gorrie (1st)
• 1965–1975	Sir Jocelyn Bodilly (14th and final)
Historical era	19th and 20th Centuries
• Western Pacific Order in Council	13 August 1877 (1877-08-13) 1877
• Dissolution	2 January 1976 (1976-01-02) 1976
Currency	British pound sterling
Today part of	Cook Islands Fiji Kiribati Nauru Niue Pitcairn Islands Solomon Islands Tokelau Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu

The British Western Pacific Territories was the name of a colonial entity, created in 1877, for the administration, under a single representative of the British Crown, styled High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, of a series of Pacific islands in and around Oceania. Except for Fiji and the Solomon Islands, most of these colonial possessions were relatively minor.

History

The composition of the territories varied over time. The most durable members were Fiji (from 1877 to 1952) and the Solomon Islands (from 1893 to 1976). Between 1942 and 1945, the high commission was suspended. While most islands were under British military administration, the Solomon Islands and Gilbert Islands came under Japanese occupation.

The position of Western Pacific High Commissioner was formalised by the Western Pacific Order in Council 1877 by the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Article 12 established a High Commissioner's Court for the Western Pacific.

In 1952, Fiji was separated from the High Commission. Following this, the High Commissioner's post moved to Honiara in the Solomon Islands, and the High Commissioner was also the Governor of the Solomon Islands. The High Commissioner's Court, however, continued to meet in Suva, with the Chief Justice of Fiji continuing as Chief Judicial Commissioner for another decade, until 1962, when the two offices were separated. Under the Western Pacific (Courts) Order in Council, gazetted on 15 August 1961 and effective from 9 April 1962, the High Commissioner's Court was renamed the High Court of the Western Pacific and relocated to the Solomon Islands. The court consisted of a Chief Justice (as the office of Chief Judicial Commissioner was renamed) and two puisne judges, one based in Port Vila, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and the other in Tarawa, Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati and Tuvalu).

Most of the island groups had gained either independence or internal self-government by 1971. On 2 January 1976 after nearly all had been given separate statehood, the office of High Commissioner and the entity of the Pacific Territories were abolished. A remnant of the High Commission, however, was the right of appeal from the courts of many island nations to the Fijan Court of Appeal, which persisted into the late 1970s. With the independence of Kiribati in 1980, all islands formerly a part of the Territories (except the Pitcairn Islands) had either gained independence or been attached to other entities.

In 2002 the archived records of this High Commission were transferred to New Zealand, and are now held in the Special Collections of the University of Auckland Library.

Island groups

SS Tokelau – Government Steamer Gilbert & Ellice Islands Protectorates (30 April 1909)

• Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1892 to 1971) – now independent separately, as Kiribati (in Micronesia) and Tuvalu (in Polynesia) respectively

In Polynesia

• Canton and Enderbury Islands (1939 to 1971) – now a part of Kiribati
• Cook Islands (1893 to 1901) – 15 small islands, now a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand
• Savage Island, also known as "Rock of Polynesia" (1900 to 1901) – now Niue; presently a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand
• Phoenix Islands (to 1939) The nearly uninhabited eight atolls are presently part of Kiribati
• Pitcairn Islands (1898 to 1952) – a current British overseas territory
• Tonga (1900 to 1952) – a native kingdom, independent since 1970
• Union Islands (1877 to 1926) – now Tokelau, a dependent territory of New Zealand

In Micronesia

• Nauru (Pleasant Island) 1914 to 1921 (After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations Mandate territory, administered by Australia; in 1947, a corresponding UN Trusteeship was approved by the United Nations; it achieved independence in 1968

In Melanesia

• Fiji (1877 to 1952) – now independent
• British Solomon Islands (1893 to 1971) – now independent as the Solomon Islands
• New Hebrides (1906 to 1971), a Franco-British condominium – now independent as Vanuatu

See also

• High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, with incumbents list

Sources, references and external links

• WorldStatesmen
• Deryck Scarr, Fragments of Empire. A History of the Western Pacific High Commission. 1877–1914, Canberra: Australian National University Press & London: C. Hurst & Co., 1967.