style="mso-ansi-language:EN" lang="EN">By the mid-19th
century, there were Anglican missionaries at work on Lifou, although there had
been natives and Polynesian immigrants doing religious work before then. In
1843, French Catholic missionaries arrived on Lifou; shortly afterward, the
Anglicans and Catholics became involved in a religious war that lasted until
the French takeover of Lifou in 1864. The missionaries even established a
school on Lifou Island, and from 1840 to the early 20th century taught most of
the population to read. They did enough religious work that in 1998 the
Lifouans were referred to as "devout Christians
