Malaita of Malaita began in 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of , declared the southern Solomon Islands as a British Protectorate with the proclamation of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, claiming to regulate the local warfare and unfair labor trade, although it coincided with the German acquisition of territories to the west and French interest in those to the east. Auki was established as a government station in 1909, as headquarters of the administrative district of Malaita. The government began to pacify the island, registering or confiscating firearms, collecting a head tax, and breaking the power of unscrupulous war leaders. One
Malaita dwarf kingfisher to species status. At the same time the name of the variable dwarf kingfisher was changed to the Moluccan dwarf kingfisher. Malaita dwarf kingfisher The Malaita dwarf kingfisher ("Ceyx malaitae"), is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae that is endemic to Malaita Island. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. This species was formerly considered as one of the 15 recognised subspecies of what was then known as the variable dwarf kingfisher ("Ceyx lepidus" or "Alcedo lepidus"). A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that most of the insular subspecies had substantially diverged from