Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific Chief Judicial Commissioner was renamed – no longer the Chief Justice of Fiji) and two puisne judges, one based in Port Vila, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and the other in Tarawa, Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati and Tuvalu). Most of the island groups had gained either independence or internal self-government by 1971. On 2 January 1976 after nearly all had been given separate statehood, the office of High Commissioner and the entity of the Pacific Territories were abolished. The High Commission of the Western Pacific was abolished, the last archives being finally packed up in Honiara in August 1978.
45th Pacific Islands Forum rising sea levels and sinking islands in the Pacific Ocean. He stated that the solution to the problem of rising seas as well as ocean warming and acidification is the reduction of CO2 emissions. Pacific islands leaders plan to produce a follow-up to the Majuro Declaration, which was passed at the 44th Pacific Islands Forum with the support of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Tuiloma Neroni Slade commended Remengesau for the choice of theme, noting "it is a theme that is most timely with considerable strategic significance in the lead up to