1. This section is based upon archival materials in the Anglican Archives located in the New Guinea Collection in the Library of the University of Papua New Guinea and patrol reports deposited in the National Archives of Papua New Guinea. The materials for a more extensive historical study of health care in the Collingwood Bay area were tragically destroyed in a fire at the Wanigela health centre in 1982.
2. I unfortunately did not have access to recent health statistics for the Collingwood Bay area. I was told by health workers in the area that malaria and tuberculosis accounted today for most deaths. The Oro Provincial Handbook (1980) states that the province has the second highest rate of malaria parasite infestation in the country.
3. A patrol report of 1968 listed 16 of the 78 Maisin individuals either employed or in professional training to be in medically related fields (Mendaris 1969). At least four Maisin men have undergone training to be dentists and two have graduated as medical doctors, including Dr Wilfred Moi, presently Head of the Mental Health Services and the first Papuan graduate in Medicine and Surgery from the Fiji School of Medicine (Moi 1976).
4. A similar distinction between sik noting and sik belong ples is reported for the North Solomons by Hamnett and Connell (1981).
5. For a discussion of the measures that are taken to protect unborn and newly born children from spirit and ghost attacks see Tietjen (1984).