Western Pacific High Commission

The Western Pacific High Commission was a colonial office of the British Empire in the western Pacific, created by an order in council in 1877 to exercise jurisdiction over British subjects across a vast oceanic region. Its main purpose at first was to suppress blackbirding, the coercive recruitment of Pacific islanders for plantation labour, and a High Commissioner's Court was established under the chief justice of Fiji. The high commissioner was ex officio the governor of Fiji, and the commission was based at Suva from 1877 to 1952. In 1893 its role expanded to supervising the British protectorates proclaimed over individual islands, including the Ellice Islands, the Gilbert Islands and the southern Solomons; authority in the protectorates was delegated to resident and deputy commissioners, who also dealt with the Kingdom of Tonga and the New Hebrides condominium. In 1952 the high commissioner moved to Honiara in the Solomon Islands and directly administered the British Solomon Islands Protectorate until it received self-government in 1976. The commission was dissolved the same year, by which time most of its island territories were moving towards independence as separate Pacific states.