Guinea —political

Problems of New Guinea —political and pastoral

Written in honour of Austra lian historian and geographer, Sir Grenfell Price, by his students and colleagues, Settlement and Encounter is a collection of geo

graphical studies, including one

on vegetation changes in Fiji, and

two on New Guinea.

Written by G. Ross Cochrane, Problems of Vegetat : on Change in Western Viti Leva, Fiji, takes a look at population density and links it with the areas of cultivation. It also takes a look at the Fijian economy, over 80 per cent, of land is Fijian owned, and the typography of the island.

Some Non-nutritive Functions of Food in New Guinea , by David Lea examines the diet problems of New Guinea as they reflect the “cumula tive weight of tradition, beliefs, taboos and prejudices” of the people.

Food payment

The author suggests that as food is an integral part of payments, dis tributions and exchanges in New Guinea, a surplus of food is essential for the proper functioning of the society. The occasional surpluses which result in a village feast, are not good enough—what is needed is a permanent surplus, he says.

Problems connected with waste, storage, methods of distribution of food, nutritional stresses and times and areas of food shortage, he claims, are just as important as studies of food production itself.

In Airtralia in New Guinea : None So Blind, Diana Hewlett examines Australian policy in New Guinea and finds it wanting. She concludes by saying this: “. . . Australia has followed largely without question the precedent of other colonial powers; and in fact has duplicated in a span of a few decades the characteristic features of colonialism which evolved during more than three centuries.

“New Guinea it seems will have to bear the consequences in its modernisation efforts in much the same way as have other colonies,”—

Jse.

(Settlement And Encounter,

Oxford University Press).