Mass Of Valuable

Pacific Data

Ir. Edwin J. Bryan, Curator Collections at the Bishop ;eum, Honolulu an d a titist widely known in con ion with Pacific Islands >rds and cultures is at

;ent visiting Australia, New

sdonia, New Zealand, Fiji,

toa and Tahiti. His tour is ig made in his capacity as tager of the Pacific Scientific >rmation Centre.

IE Centre has an interesting back ground. During the war in the fic, the United States comman required all kinds of data cover islands history, life, physical con ms, resources. The data was ered and treated, irrespective of , Mr. Bryan had a great deal to vith the collection, which included isands of aerial photographs of fic Islands.

Tien the war was over, the United es proposed to “dump” much of material, just as millions of ars’ worth of war equipment was mped”. Mr. Bryan interposed, and

got possession of a mass of priceless material, and permission to store it in Honolulu, in association with the Bishop Museum; and, ever since, he has had charge of it.

It is available to any person, any where, who is seeking data on the lands in and around the Pacific, especially in the fields of geography, natural and social sciences.

The chief problem is to make this material more readily available to persons and institutions interested,

and this is the basic purpose of Mr.

Bryan’s tour. This part of his work is being actively and financially sup ported by the South Pacific Commis sion.

Mr. Bryan is the author of an ex tremely valuable book on the islands of the Central Pacific called Ameri can Polynesia. It is the only book outlining the history of and condi tions on these islands, some of which, such as Malden, Starbuck and Vostok, are now uninhabited.