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This project will examine the impact and the progress of Methodist missionary work on Choiseul from 1905 to 1941. The predominant European contact on Choiseul was with missionaries and this was significantly more recent than many of the other islands in the group. Choiseul was unattractive for settlement or commercial development because the lack of arable land meant that it was unsuitable for large plantations to be established. A lacuna exists in the current historiography of the Solomons with regard to Choiseul. A study of the Methodist Mission on Choiseul offers the opportunity to examine the development of the mission, and the people on the island during the period under study, and fill that gap. The nature of conversion to Christianity on Choiseul, and the way the missionaries, including European, Solomon Islanders and Pacific Islanders, operated, cooperated, and disagreed with the Choiseulese and with each other will be examined to help answer the question, to what extent was Choiseul a Methodist, or a missionary, island.

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This thesis examines the origins, deployment, operations and demise of 3NZ Division. It argues that the forces that became the Division were sent to Fiji because of a perceived strategic threat, particularly from airpower, if the islands were seized by the Japanese. The Division was relieved in Fiji by the Americans but returned to the Pacific in 1943 because New Zealand wanted to earn a place at the peace table and the Americans lacked troops in the theatre. Whether the Division was primarily an offensive or garrison unit remained unclear throughout its existence and influenced its constitution. Major General Harold Barrowclough, its commander from 1942 to 1944, had somewhat different strengths from his fellow divisional commander Major General Bernard Freyberg, and operated in a very different environment, with amphibious operations at brigade level. Furthermore, his division operated in an area dominated by the United States Navy rather than the more familiar culture of the British Army. More generally, the relationship between the New Zealanders and the Americans in the South Pacific was complex, generally symbiotic but occasionally unfriendly and even lethal. The perception in New Zealand that service in the South Pacific was less onerous than service in the Mediterranean ignores the often unpleasant and even deadly conditions faced by the soldiers of 3NZ Division. The Division’s combat operations contributed significantly to the neutralisation of the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul. Except for a brief period in 1942, 3NZ Division took second place in New Zealand’s war effort to 2NZ Division. This reflected Wellington’s general inclination to favour Commonwealth over local defence, and, despite some wavering, New Zealand declined to follow Australia and focus its efforts in the Pacific. Lack of manpower to field two divisions resulted in 3NZ Division having only two brigades and growing demands from the Air Force, industry and agriculture ultimately led to its disbandment. Thereafter it faded from the public consciousness and its contribution disregarded. The men and women of 3NZ Division have undeservedly become New Zealand's forgotten warriors.