Melsisi

Melsisi also has a bank and post office, numerous small stores, restaurants, a sports field, and a shed by the beach where cargo ships come ashore.

Apma siisii means to scrabble at or disturb, and locals claim that the site got this name because inhabitants from upland villages were historically harassed when they came down to the sea.

The northern branch of the river is usually dry, although local legend tells that it used to flow, before being diverted using traditional magic by a man who wanted the water for his own land.

Melsisi was founded by Marist missionaries, who originally came ashore in 1898 at Vanrabibi, 3 km to the south-east, at a spot marked today by a concrete memorial.

In the large and densely populated but historically inaccessible region inland from Melsisi, native religion survived for quite a long time after the establishment of the mission.

Upon hearing of this, the British colonial authorities took several of the perpetrators away to prison in Vila, and had the priest, Père Guillaume, tried in a Nouméa court for inciting the natives to murder.

The use of Apma by the Melsisi mission is blamed by some for the decline and subsequent extinction of Sowa language, originally spoken south of the river.