Accurate Look At The Islands

“How People Live in the Islands of the South Pacific is a book igned for children, but it's adult fare too.

RE, for example, is the intelli gent way the author explains of the differences between racial is in Fiji. ians: “In some villages there is ergetic or well-trained man . . . re a lead. Very often one young will decide he wishes to become )re successful farmer and earn money by selling the crops he s. He may start off well but he ble to find his relatives come and nost of his profits from him . . . can see how today kerekere may bad custom.” dians: “You may think Ram [the farmer] has to work very hard long hours. Generally speaking is not true. Many of the jobs he to do take only a day or two help from his family. During of the year, such as harvest , he is very busy, but at other 5 he may do very little work for ek at a time. People have calcu i that if all the jobs farmers like have to do were spread evenly the whole year, each man would to work only three days per r uropeans: “Even though Peter and i Chapman have lived in Suva for years they have really not seen h of Fiji. They have made ral trips around Viti Levu by road one visit to Vanua Levu, Like y of the European residents of a, however, they have never

stayed overnight in a Fijian village or visited an Indian cane farm. Gener ally it is only those Europeans whose jobs take them to such places who have done more than look at the villages and farms from a car on the main road.”

The book is one of a series on How People Live, each written by some body who knows his area at first hand. The series dosen’t intend to cover every country, but it will cover all the most important regions of the world. The South Pacific is dealt with by taking a close look at Fiji and West Samoa, with text, maps and photographs.

The author of this volume is R.

Gerard Ward, Lecturer in Geography at the University of Auckland, who has recently been appointed Lecturer in Geography at University College, London. He has in the last few years done a great deal of research in both Fiji and Samoa.

If the rest in the series have the same standards of accuracy and clarity as this one on the South Pacific Islands then the publishers deserve the applause of the world’s geography teachers—not to mention their often suffering students. It is also a hand some little book.

(How People Live In Islands Of

THE SOUTH PACIFIC. Published by rae Educational Supply Association Ltd Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Price 8/b sterling.)