and held this position for many years. In the following year he was appointed a special commissioner to report on the position in Tonga, where there had been serious trouble for some years during the premiership of Shirley Waldemar Baker. He was able to speak the language of the natives and gather evidence for himself. He compiled a comprehensive and valuable series of Reports by the Rev. George Brown, Special Commissioner of the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist General Conference to Tonga, printed at Sydney in 1890. He continued for many years to keep in touch with missionary work in Papua, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomons, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. In the islands in the German sphere of influence he had to walk warily, but his knowledge and experience were of the greatest value not only to his own church but to the British government. He resigned his position of general secretary of missions in 1907, and in the following year brought out his autobiography George Brown, D.D., Pioneer-missionary and Explorer. Unfortunately he had declined an offer by his friend, Robert Louis Stevenson, to write his biography. Writing Ten volumes of Brown's manuscript journals survive. Brown published Melanesians and Polynesians Their Life-histories Described and Compared (1910), a valuable record of the manners, customs and folklore of the islanders written by a man who had spent much of his time among them over a period of 48 years, and who was familiar with the Samoan, Tongan, Fijian and New Britain languages. Brown died at Sydney on 7 April 1917. His wife survived him with two sons and three daughters. Brown was also the author of various pamphlets and articles, and was associated with the Rev. B. Danks in the preparation of a Dictionary of the Duke of York Language New Britain Group. References Niel Gunson, 'Brown, George (1835–1917)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, MUP, 1969, pp 256–257. Reeson, Margaret, Pacific Missionary George Brown 1835–1917. Wesleyan Methodist Church. Canberra: Australian National University E Press 2013. XIII, 351 p. Brown, George, D.D., An Autobiography: Pioneer-Missionary and Explorer. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1908. External links George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, their life-histories described and compared, Published 1910 by Macmillan and co. Ltd., London – Open Library The George Brown Collection at Minpaku: An introduction to the life and work of George Brown, and his collection of ethnological artefacts, George Brown Project, 2016, (website) National Museum