1886 56pp plus detached foldout map of Port Moresby & its environs including settlements of Granville East & West, and revealing an annual budget of only £10,000. Commisioner John Douglas comments "Sir Peter Scratchley died 2.12.1885...[I travelled] to confer with the Australian Governments contributing to the maintenance of the Protectorate [itemised in an appendix]...contract with Messrs Burns Philp for a service from Thursday Island to Port Moresby & Dinner Island [Samarai]..."  Further commentary on the lay of the land in the new Protectorate and an extensive report by Douglas on 'Native Policy' stating "[Scratchley's policy that] New Guinea must be governed for the natives and by the natives would be a costly & chimerical experiment...inevitably resulting in failure".

Grade A- (Image1)

Estimate AU$250

1887 70pp (pp50-68 missing) plus two large detached foldout maps of the Baxter & Chester Rivers Expedition and SE Papua with Owen Stanley Range & inset topographical sketches. Commisioner John Douglas comments that South Australia failed to pay its annual contribution; BNG had an exhibit at the 1887 Colonial Exhibition in London; the Western Division is administered from Thursday Island & the curious statement "The natives are a fine race and hopeful savages" (!?). Re Port Moresby: "The township of Granville has been formed at Paga Point" with a single-room Post Office located there. Re the local natives: "[They] no longer bury their dead in the immediate vicinity of their houses", and water has been piped to the native village. The mission reports include one from Yule Island, in French!

Grade B (Image1)

Estimate AU$200

1888-1889 (the next issue, with the reporting year now ending 30 June) 68pp plus map (missing) Administrator Sir William McGregor appointed 4.9.1888 comments on his first act being to declare the Queen's sovereignty; that "natives" means all residents of non-European descent; that purchase of land from natives is prohibited, as is the supply to them of firearms, explosives, liquor and opium. Detailed report of tours of inspection. Customs Officer notes "...a much larger quantity of gold was procured than has been declared...from Sudest & St Aignan [Misima]". Scientific reports about birds, butterflies & reptiles.

Grade B (Image1)

Estimate AU$150

1892-1893 132pp plus three foldout maps (two regarding the revised boundary with Dutch New Guinea). Administrator Sir William McGregor comments on regulating the cutting of indigenous timber, & his visitation reports mention witchcraft, polygamy, cannibalism, infanticide, and inheritance. Hundreds of unfamiliar placenames plus extensive report on native vocabulary & grammar. Brief postal report advises of letters sent x4011 (2587 in 1888-89) & letters received x4679 (2366 in 1888-89).

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$200

1893-1894 136pp plus seven foldout maps. Administrator Sir William McGregor advises of 13 death sentences, all but one commuted to long prsion terms, and that all Port Moresby prisoners were taken to Samarai to drain the swamp there. Extensive visitation reports generally comment favourably on behaviour of natives, conduct of missions, and erection of new buildings. Interesting commentary on tabu (taboo) & sorcery, and interesting 16pp native dictionary.

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$250

1894-1895 74pp, last leaf detached. Acting Administrator Francis Winter (the Chief Judicial Officer) has spent the year travelling extensively but has relatively little to report apart from several parties of miners from Queensland who all enjoyed very little success, and the London Missionary Society having established a training college at Kapa Kapa.

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$150

1895-1896 156pp plus one map within, one of the most expansive and historically significant of all the annual reports. Lieutenant-Governor William MacGregor comments there is "...no real settlement by Europeans in the Western District...most serious industrial disadvantage by its natural fishing grounds being practically all held by Queensland". In the Eastern District "...the lowest village on the Mambare...deserted, the inhabitants having been driven out...[by tribes] not clear whether [they] are British or German subjects" and a lengthy report on expedition to the same area to arrest natives implicated in the murder of miner George Clark: "...The half-dozen constabulary...were not sufficient to arrest as many of these natives as I deemed necessary...nothing has been seen or heard of the two Queensland aborigines that accompanied Mr Clark".

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$200

1896-1897 122pp plus five large foldout maps (the last detached). Another very expansive report with lengthy despatches and the first to be interspersed with numerous skillful drawings of natives, customs, graves, animals & topography. Lieutenant-Governor William MacGregor. Contains a lengthy ornithological report & the comment "The miners' camp on  Woodlark Island...no wonder the men suffer from fever...it is absurd to live in a tent in [British] New Guinea".

Grade A- (Image1)

Estimate AU$200

1897-1898 196pp plus eight large foldout maps and 26 photo-plates (the last detached) of natives & costumes, implements & weapons, housing & tattooing etc. Lieutenant-Governor William MacGregor reveals an ever-increasing interest in mining prospects, the expansion of exploration and comments on the finding of payable gold on the Gira River. Chief Judicial Officer Winter reports on a decade of administration of justice in BNG & F Manson Bailey, Queensland Government Botanist, presents 'Contributions to the Flora of [British] New Guinea'.

Grade A- (Image1)

Estimate AU$250

1898-1899 150pp plus 11 large foldout maps that comprise half the thickness & have contributed to the whole being largely loose-leaf, the front cover defective & some foxing. Lieutenant-Governor George Ruthven Le Hunte. Balance of trade is very positive: imports £52,170 & exports £68,496. Focus on the burgeoning mining industry continues & the need for a road from Tamata to the goldfields but "The local natives, as is usually the case, do not care & have no necessity to work".

Grade B (Image1)

Estimate AU$250

1899-1900 196pp plus 4 tipped-in large foldout maps, largely detached but very fine. Lieutenant-Governor George Ruthven Le Hunte. "An order has been sent to England for a set of stamps...the Australian Colonies, & consequently the Possession, [need to] join the universal penny postage system...the only part [of the Empire] which has not done so". "The arrangement by which NSW Victoria & Queensland [the other Colonies had opted out] contributed £5000 a year each for ten years to the administration of BNG terminated in 1898". Includes reports re the Establishment of a Government Station at Cape Nelson and Visit to Inland Tribes.

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$200

1903-1904 88pp plus four tipped-in plates of ancient artefacts discovered at Collingwood Bay. Administrator MH Moreton. Fewer reports & more emphasis on the statistics. For example, there were 274 village constables in 265 villages. The salary of the Lieut-Governor or, in his absence, the Administrator was £800pa + £200 allowance, compared with the Chief Judicial Officer who received £969.

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$100

1904-1905 80pp with no maps & no illustrations. Again a high concentration on statistics. "The Yodda gold field [near Kokoda] is extensive, and rich in alluvial gold. It has not been exploited as energetically as one might have expected [due to] expense of living; difficulty of approach; hostile attitude of the natives".

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$100

1910-1911 220pp + six foldout maps of various sizes, the brief introduction by Lieut-Governor JHP Murray states "The principal event of the year was [MSC] Smith's exploration along the Kikori [River] in the Western District..." One-third of the party perished, "something quite unprecedented in Papuan exploration", and Murray concluded with only light irony that the venture was "disastrous".

Grade A (Image1)

Estimate AU$250

1914-1915 160pp + ten foldout maps of various sizes, illustrated report "...the Technology of the Orokaiva Tribes of Northern Papua", & lengthy lists of native words & their English meanings. Lieut-Governor JHP Murray comments at length about World War I: "...Probably there is no part of the Empire where it is so difficult to realize [sic] that a state of war exists...about a twelfth of our [white] population either have gone or are going to the front [including one-third of the civil administration]...There were certainly no pro-Germans among the natives". He also refers to the lessened demand for labour & comments on the legal system folloowing the murder of two Europeans by natives.

Grade A- (Image1)

Estimate AU$250

1915-1916 42pp including four pages of photos of native agriculture. Lieut-Governor JHP Murray comments "The scarcity of paper demands that the Annual Report...shall be as brief as possible". He speaks of efforts at 'pacification' of Fly Rivewr natives, of executions in Moresby, of "drought-stricken plains of the west" and "the facility with which [the natives] become unconscious on apparently the slightest provocation".

Grade B (Image1)

Estimate AU$100

1916-1917 80pp including four pages - detached - of photos of native agriculture. Lieut-Governor JHP Murray comments "So many government officers have enlisted...about 50...nearly half of the whole service..." He also comments on the generally peaceful relations with the natives, and the shocking Muguru Ceremony marked by "an exchange of wives...and absolute promiscuity". Resident Magistrate EWP Chinnery's lengthy report of an explorative patrol north of Mount Yule is included, with extensive comment on culture & mores ("sexual immorality is rife"), inclusion of a comparative vocabulary of six tribal groups & a large fold-out map (detached).

Grade B (Image1)

Estimate AU$150

1917-1918 100pp with most pages and the seven fold-out maps detached. Lieut-Governor JHP Murray comments on the replacement of the government launch wrecked in 1912, for which Australia allocated £25,000 but only £11,000 was expended (imagine that happening today!). Also, "the most important patrol...from Nepa to Morobe in German New Guinea...mostly through new country" plus a lengthy report of the expedition by WR Humphries. Other tidbits include advice of a new post office building at Moresby & more than 100 telephone lines. Hospital admissions included for phthysis, renal calculus, 'pyrexia of uncertain origin', syncope, kuhi-kuhi & 'malingering'! Further tribal vocabularies.

Grade B (Image1)

Estimate AU$150