New Guinea Again: One

New And One Old

Such continues to be the interest by publishers in New Guinea books that Melbourne’s Lansdowne Press in November issued a pair of them. Side-by-side with a new book by Malcolm Wright, The Gentle Savage, came the re-issue of Ivan Champion’s Across New Guinea From The Fly To The Sepik.

THE Champion book is a publish ing event. The first and only previous issue was in 1932 and ran to only about 1,000 copies. It’s been a rare collector’s item since, and not even the author now owns a copy.

It’s an important account of an historic series of patrols, and there fore needed to be more accessible.

The Lansdowne edition is a better production than the original—with bigger and better photographs selected by the author, who says that he was never very happy with those in the 1932 book. Only one or two of the original photographs have been retained.

The new edition includes the valu able map and index, and the text is similar except Mr. Champion has added one brief postscript. This

brings up-to-date developments in the Telefomin and border areas and touches on the political situation—but only slightly. This is still a patrol record and not a book of comment.

He remarks that the Indonesians are a courteous people and that when the people of New Guinea are ready for independence “they will ally themselves with Indonesia; I can see no other course for them”.

Mr. Champion, born in Papua, a member of a famous family, was until his recent retirement to Brisbane Chief Native Lands Commissioner in the territory.

Across New Guinea tells of his ex ploits as a young patrol officer with Assistant Resident Magistrate Charles Karius, when they made two patrols, from 1926 to 1928, in an effort to trace the source of the Sepik. They started from the Fly River, in the south, and eventually crossed New Guinea from south to north at its widest part.

Not a single shot was fired by either men on their two journeys.

Only one carrier died.

The first patrol, from December, 1926, to July, 1927, did not achieve its objective, but it enabled them to survey a route through the great limestone barrier in the south. The second patrol took them through to the Sepik.

Across New Guinea is no thriller, to be read avidly by those looking for romance and adventure on every page. Mr. Champion writes as he talks—matter-of-factly and in under statement. But this second edition will be welcomed by the growing numbers of serious students of New Guinea affairs who would otherwise have been unable to get hold of it.

Karius died in Sydney in 1940, just before he was due to retire from the Administration. 11/TALCOLM WRIGHT is also an old hand in New Guinea, but what he has to say in The Gentle Savage is not as significant as Cham pion’s writing. Now living in Mel bourne, he went to the territory as a patrol officer in 1936 and stayed

there until the war, when he enlisted.

After the war he became a District Commisisoner, and he left the terri tory in 1952 for family reasons.

His wartime exploits on New Britain have been told in If I Die, also published by Lansdowne.

If / Die is a more readable book; it has a yarn to tell. The Gentle Savage describes a patrol officer’s life before the war, and there are not enough highlights to make the ac count specially memorable.

But of course books of this sort don’t require thrills on every page to make them worthwhile, and as a routine account of the pre-war PO’s lot The Gentle Savage is a useful addition to the New Guinea book shelf.

The reader will certainly find material enough to keep him turning the pages, and occasionally there is food for thought.

Practical Knowledge

As for instance the experience of the 1938 class of New Guinea cadets who attended Sydney University for a course in anthropology and law, and who were anathema to the teaching staff until both sides began to understand each other’s problems.

The cadets claimed practical know ledge as being sufficient; the lecturers dismissed their experience as worthless and demanded academic authorities.

One of the cadets said in an essay that the cremation of widows at their husband’s funeral was being practised an Eastern Highlands tribe.

“Who is your authority for this statement?” demanded the lecturer.

“I am,” said the cadet. “I saw the burnt remains of two women near the burial platform. The people said they were the wives of the dead men and that this was their custom.”

“But you have no scientific authority for this,” argued the anthropologist.

You are not a trained observer.

You have no academic qualifications.”

“Maybe so,” said the cadet. “But if you are going to stick to that point of view you are going to miss a lot

of good material!”-

SI.

(Across New Guinea From The

FLY TO THE SEPIK. $5.25. THE GENTLE SAVAGE. $3.50. Both published by Lansdowne Press.)