People Of The Pacific In Pictures

There have been a number of notable books of photographic studies of the people and lands of the South Seas—the monumental effort of Bernd Lohse, published a few years ago for example. But most of these have been produced by foreign visitors—Lohse, for instance, was a German national

ONE of the first home-produced w jobs is People in the Sun, by Lyndon and Ronald Rose, both of whom are Australians, and established writers. Ronald Rose’s book. South Seas Magic, which describes life among the modern Samoans, was reviewed here about 18 months ago.

Mrs. Rose’s novel Country of the Dead was reviewed at an earlier penod - The pictorial book is a new departure for both of them, although as both have carried out anthropological research among the aborigines of Australia, the Maoris of New Zealand and the Western Samoans, they are more fitted than most to produce a book of this sort. In addition, Mr.

Rose has visited New Guinea and is information Officer of the Department of Territories, Canberra-and

that takes care of the Melanesian side of the book.

To make a connected story, the book is arranged under the following headings: People, clothing, houses, food, village life and looking ahead’, Apart from a short introduction to each section, the stories are told with the pictures and their captions.

Serious seekers after facts don’t, as a rule, resort to pictorial books; ’but for the . reader who merely wants a general idea of what these people of tbe ,? utb Seas look like, and how tb ? y bve ’ and or tbe younger student, tbls typ . e of b ? ok * s £ ood va lue. * s i n . dem i quarto size (if you’re uon-technical, about the size of a child’s picture book) and has a full colour dust jacket. All other dis trations are in black and white, uk. 7