The North Solomons are the former German Solomon Islands in Melanesia which were part of German New Guinea. The islands are also known as Bougainville after their principal island.
On 14 November 1899 (effective 1900) Germany transferred Choiseul, Santa Isabel, the Shortlands and Ontong Java Islands to the British Solomon Islands, but retained Bougainville and its surrounding islands as part of the Treaty of Berlin (1899). Germany granted the claim in exchange for the British giving up all claims to Samoa.
Missions
The Roman Catholic Prefecture Apostolic of the Northern Solomon Islands was established on 23 May, 1898, by separation from the Vicariate Apostolic of New Pomerania, including the Islands of Ysabel, Choiseul, Bougainville, and all the islets under German protectorate.
In 1897 the islands were put under the jurisdiction of Mgr Broyer, Vicar Apostolic of Samoa, and in 1898 formed into a new prefecture under Mgr Joseph Forestier, who resided at Kieta, on Bougainville Island. Fever was so prevalent at the mission that most of the fathers who went to the islands in 1898 were carried off by disease.
In 1911 the mission contained: 3 churches; 3 stations; 10 Marist Fathers; 5 lay brothers; 7 sisters of the Third Order of Mary; 2 Samoan catechists; 5 Catholic schools, with 140 pupils; 2 orphanages; and a few hundred Catholics. The Marist missionaries belonged to the Province of Oceania, the superior of which resided at Sydney, New South Wales.
