Book Reviews

Pacific History Made Easy -

At Only 25C A Year

Historians, journalists, students and such like embarking on books, articles or theses on any aspect of Pacific history are perennially confronted with the same problem: how to find what material exists on their chosen subject?

In the case of printed material, the problem has been largely solved in recent years by the appearance of detailed bibliographies on many of the Island territories, as well as by the bibliographies of current publications that appear annually in the Journal of Pacific History and the Bulletin de la Societe des Oceanistes.

But what about manuscript material? How do you discover the whereabouts of, say, the journals and correspondence of the early London Missionary Society missionaries in Samoa? How do you find out whether any papers of, say. Sir Arthur Gordon of Fiji or Sir Hubert Murray of Papua, have found their way into a public repository some where?

In the case of documents deposited in libraries in Australia, the thing to do is to consult the somewhat mis named Guide to Manuscripts Relating to Australia, or the Catalogue of Manuscripts of Australia and the Pacific, in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

But until a few weeks ago there was no simple way of finding out what was where in Great Britain.

In fact, Great Britain was the despair of any would-be Pacific historian.

Now, however, there is a magnifi cent guidebook of 697 closely printed pages entitled Manuscripts in the British Isles Relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. It is the result of eight years of Herculean labour bv Miss Phyllis Mander-Jones, a former Mitchell Librarian, and several assistants, sponsored by the National Library of Australia and the Australian National Univeristy.

Miss Mander-Jones’ volume lists and briefly describes every manuscript or collection of manuscripts on the area it covers in every conceivable

repository from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, and from Ulster to County Cork, for the definition of ‘British Isles’ in her title includes the Republic of Ireland.

The repositories alone make a formidable list. They include such obvious places as the British Museum, the India Office Library, the Methodist Missionary Society and the Public Records Office, as well as many totally unexpected ones such as the Dorset Military Museum, Dorchester; David Salomon’s House, Tunbridge Wells, Kent; and the Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man.

In London alone, the Australasian and Oceanic contents of no less than 98 repositories are listed and described, and in each case there is also a brief description of the repository itself.

Miss Mander-Jones’ volume is an essential tool for anyone planning detailed research on any of the subjects it embraces. It is also a fascinating book just to browse in.

Who would have guessed, for

example, that the British and Foreign Bible Society would still have the manuscript by King Pomarc II of Tahiti of his translation into Tahitian (c. 1820) of St John’s Gospels and part of the Acts of the Apostles?

How else could you readily find out that the British Museum has a letter, written in 1880 by John Hill, of Rabi Island, Fiji, in which he reported the death of his Sydney partner and announced that he would probably have to sell his share in that island?

What, you may wonder, would you be likely to find in the journal (in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich) of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, commander of Britain’s Pacific Squadron in 1847-49, which, according to the guide, mainly con cerns South America, but also con tains entries relating to Hawaii, Samoa and Tahiti?

And what untold secrets might there not be in a baldly-described Public Records Office item such as: Adm. 172/3, 1845-57, Navigators’,

Friendly and Fiji Islands, Correspon dence and Reports?

Without ever looking a manuscript up, you could browse for days through Miss Mander-Jones’ volume.

Or if you could manage it, you could £ browse for a hundred years, for the publishers claim that the paper in the B book is made to withstand about a I century of solid wear.

At that rate, the cost of the book I ($25) works out at only 25 cents a I year, which is a cheap investment for 8 any person or library with a bent 8 for Pacific, Australian or New 8 Zealand history. —Robert Langdon. (Manuscripts in the British Is’.es relating ■ to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

Edited by Phyllis Mander-Jones. Aus ■ tralian National University Press, Canberra.

I $251.

More to Indonesia

than Bali beaches

Australia’s peripatetic writer of king-size travel books, Colin Simpson, has gone into mini-size for his latest; Bali and Beyond. This probably indicates nothing more serious than Indonesia’s rating in the world of international tourism.

In this reviewer’s opinion, the Beyond section of the book, covering Java, Sumatra and a brief look at Celebes, is more interesting than what he has to say about currently J “in” Bali.

In writing about the latter, the mantle of the late Frank Clune ap pears to have rested at times on the Simpson shoulders. The result, in parts, seems to be free advertisements for Garuda International Airways (on which he travelled), the Bali Beach Inter-Continental Hotel (where he stayed), and Bali Golden Tours (with whom he travelled further afield).

Author Simpson writes for the carriage trade in travel. No nonsense about Bali (or Spain, Greece or Russia, for that matter) on $5 a day.

After a hard day’s sightseeing he believes (with the majority of tourists including one J.T.) in coming back to a hotel equipped with 1972-type conveniences.

However, from what he says, these come pretty high in Indonesia, even on accepted international standards.

Double room rate at the Inter-Con tinental was $24 a day plus a whop ping 21 per cent service charge and tax.

Bali and Beyond dispenses the usual Simpson brew of practical details, as above, with bits of history, cultural notes and personal ex

periences.—Judy Tudor.

AND . BEYOND. Angus and «obertson, Sydney. $4.95).