Honiara of the British Protectorate of Solomon Islands in 1952. The infrastructure had been fairly well developed by the US during the war which dictated the decision of the British Government to shift the capital to Honiara. Government buildings opened in Honiara from early January in 1952. Sir Robert Stanley was based at Honiara during his time as High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, which included the British Solomon Islands, the Condominium of New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony (now Kiribati and Tuvalu). Dr. Macu Salato arrived in Honiara in early August 1954 and was based
Honiara the 1960s and 1970s some two-thirds of the investment into economic development in the country went into developing the infrastructure of Honiara, despite the fact that at the time only some five percent of Solomon Islanders lived there. Like Tulagi, the town did not grow substantially as a result of industrialisation. As Trevor Sofield says, "The shops and businesses in these centers served the needs of the government officials and expatriate businessmen, planters, and traders. Honiara, like many other ex-colonial cities, still reflects the political, economic and cultural structure of its former metropolitan mentor much more than it does the