New Guinea Books

A Vintage Year For New Guinea Books

A pointer to increased public interest in New Guinea is the fact that Australian publishers in 1963 will produce three important books on the Territory, and at least two other books will approach publication.

THE three to be published com prise two histories of New Guinea and an autobiography.

Olaf Ruhen’s Mountains in the Clouds looks like being first in the book stores. It is being published by Rigby Ltd., of Adelaide, and is due out in April.

“It is virtually a straight history

of New Guinea; designed to give the background to the country,”

Ruhen said in February. “Apart from the reports on early explora tion the book deals mostly with Papua-New Guinea.”

Mountains in the Clouds will be either the fifth or the sixth book to be published by Ruhen, depend ing on whether a new novel. The Frockmaster is published in London before Mountains in the Clouds comes out in April. Ruhen’s Tangaroa’s Godchild, which is mostly autobiographical and deals with the Pacific, was reviewed in February

Pim.

Angus and Robertson Limited, of Sydney, will follow in September with the publication of Gavin Souter’s, The Last Unknown. This is a history of the exploration of the entire island of New Guinea, from the earliest days to the postwar patrols.

“In working on the book I have uncovered much new material,” said Souter, “There is some interesting new light on many facets of develop ment.” (Over)

Gavin Souter, with daughter Anne.

Souter, who like Ruhen has made several trips to New Guinea and has been on patrol there, is a special writer on The Sydney Morning Herald.

About November, in time for the Christmas trade, F. W. Cheshire, of Melbourne, will produce the impor tant and long-awaited autobiography of J. K. McCarthy, Papua-New Guinea’s Director of Native Affairs, who first went to the Territory as a cadet in 1927. A firm title for the book has not yet been chosen.

“The book deals with the early patrol work and problems in New Guinea, the Pacific War and the effects of it on the country, and post war developments,” said McCarthy, who returned to Port Moresby in

February after leave in Melbourne, where he completed the manuscript.

McCarthy’s book, which is filled with names and events, will be well illustrated with many of his own early pictures.