In 1975, the Bahá'í communities of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides Condominium (now Vanuatu) were administered by a single entity, the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the South-West Pacific. That year the convention to elect the new national Spiritual Assembly was held in Port Vila, New Hebrides. Counsellor Suhayl Ala'i, my dear friend from Samoa, was present, as was Bertha Dobbins, the Knight of Bahá'u'lláh who had first brought the Bahá'í Faith to the New Hebrides in 1953. The New Era School she established there educated many of the future leaders of Vanuatu.
