1967 Gilbert and Ellice Islands general election by the House) and two ex officio members. 1967 Gilbert and Ellice Islands general election General elections were held in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1967. All candidates ran as independents. Earlier in the year the British government promulgated a new constitution for the islands, creating a House of Representatives to replace the Advisory Council. The new House of Representatives had 30 members, of which 23 were elected (18 from the Gilberts and five from Ellice Islands), five civil servants and two ex officio members. In addition, the Executive Council was replaced with a Governing Council, to consist of
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