1974 Gilbert and Ellice Islands general election 1974 Gilbert and Ellice Islands general election General elections were held in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands on 4 April 1974. All candidates ran as independents. The system of government was changed again prior to the 1974 elections; the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order 1974 replaced the Legislative Council with a 31-member House of Assembly, including 28 elected members and three ex officio members. A Council of Ministers replaced the Executive Council, and consisted of the Chief Minister elected by the House of Assembly and six ministers. Following the elections, Naboua Ratieta was appointed the territory's first Chief Minister. When
History of the Pacific Islands Western Samoa became the first Pacific Island nation to gain political independence. In 1997, Samoa officially dropped the 'Western' from its name as it was an appendage from its colonial era. The human history of the Solomon Islands begins with the first settlement at least 30,000 years ago from New Guinea. They represented the furthest expansion of humans into the Pacific Ocean until the expansion of Austronesian-language speakers through the area around 4000 BCE, bringing new agricultural and maritime technology. Most of the languages spoken today in the Solomon Islands derive from this era, but some thirty languages of the