[1] The mission to Melanesia advanced, and the diocese was subdivided and regional diocesan bishops created, until on 26 January 1975.
Chisholm died shortly after appointment and the then dean of St. Barnabas Cathedral, Norman Palmer, was chosen the second archbishop.
He was honored by Elizabeth II, Queen of Solomon Islands – becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire – and by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury – who awarded him the Cross of St Augustine.
From 1900/3 until 1910, Richard Blundell Comins, in what is now the nation of Solomon Islands, was also called Archdeacon of Northern Melanesia.
[17] De Voil was both priest-in-charge of St George's Rabaul and archdeacon until he returned to Great Britain in 1937.