Gilbert and Ellice Islands until 1977. A protectorate was generally established over this area (but not over these islands) by the Pacific Islanders Protection Act of 1857 and then in 1877 for the Western Pacific Territories. The sixteen islands of the Gilberts were declared a British Protectorate by Captain Davis R.N., of between 27 May and 17 June 1892. The Ellice Islands were declared a British Protectorate by Captain Gibson R.N., of , between 9 and 16 October of the same year. The British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) were administered by a High Commissioner resident in Fiji. A Resident Commissioner, Charles Swayne, was appointed
Top-level domain the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone. IANA currently distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains: domain (.arpa) Originally, the top-level domain space was organized into three main groups: "Countries", "Categories", and "Multiorganizations". An additional "temporary" group consisted of only the initial DNS domain, arpa, and was intended for transitional purposes toward the stabilization of the domain name system. As of 2015, IANA distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains: Countries are designated in the Domain Name System by their two-letter ISO country code; there are exceptions, however (e.g., .uk). This