Souter to go paperback

XTEW GUINEA: The Last Unknown, Gavin Souter’s history of the exploration of the island of New Guinea (both PNG and Irian Jaya), first published in 1963 and reprinted in hardcover several times since, is to be published in paperback during 1974.

The issue will be produced by the original publishers, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, but no effort will be made to update the book, as author Souter says it isn’t the kind of book that would profit from an updating N i' S?X! r 0 s s “9 h , a WKte sweep of reallu nea ISt ° ry ij- at there Is chimer „n P addmg ano her menK th?t Jn ® mp i° ra l7 de . v f l ? p : in jmlkf * d simply be outdated “It wr'ft/ anywa F’ ,u 3y i' for all seasons* and* iLf° rt ft. 0f hook want o leaTh” C Way 1 Last Unknown was Souter's first book. He has since published three others, none on island subjects, and is currently doing some research into an Australian historical subject” which may lead to another book.

Souter is a feature writer with the Sydney Morning Herald, by whom he has been employed all his career. has ,W W n,ll e r J^a gUS , Ro . be^ So s nas just published a reprint, in hard oi S S ft u C °y er i’ of Australian aut hor T»,- hen s drama t lC a nd true story of Minerva Reef—not the dream republic, but the Minerva Reef of the l / Tongans, who were marooned there for 102 days in 1962.

Their Auckland-bound 20 ton cutter Tuaikaepau ran on the reef on the night of July 7. Escaping death by a near-miracle when the cutter disintegrated under the tremendous pounding of a high sea, the Tongans, led by Captain Tevita Fifita, saw the answer to their prayers when dawn came—the hull of a Japanese wooden trawler lying on her side on the reef more than a mile away. That trawler, wrecked heaven-knows when, was their home for 102 days.

Ho w 13 men-four perishedfought to survive and did so, thanks to their almost superhuman courage and gift of leadership of Captain Fifita. their faith and the gifts which Providence scattered sparingly in their Path, makes an incredible story, one of the best sea stories ever read. That d comes from Olaf Ruhen’s gifted Pe " “ en ° Ugh ' (Minerva reff, by oiaf Ruhen. Angus

bounfTS soXuSniloj Ltd * Hard "

Journal of Pacific History A has lived up to its promise, made in its first issue in 1966, of filling a major gap in Pacific periodical literatUre ’ and w j th the advent of Volume 8, one wonders how the area managed without this annual record of articles, manuscripts and reviews. Of special value are the sections devoted to recording recent or insufficiently known discoveries or collections of manuscripts relating to the Islands,

and the bibliography of current pub lications.

Such a wealth of material is now being produced or turned up by the graduates of the boom in Pacific academia, that it needs more than an annual publication to keep up with it, and one day perhaps we may see the journal produced more frequently, as the Polynesian Society’s journal is.

Among the original articles in the current issue are German Firms in the Western Pacific Islands, 1857- 1914, by Stewart Firth; Monument to a Missionary: C. W. Abel and the Keveri of Papua, by David Wetherell; Private Interests and the Origins of American Involvement in Samoa, 1872-1878, by Barry Rigby; and From Polynesia to California: Samoan Migration and its Sequel, where sev eral authors discuss the history and development of the fairly recent American Samoan migration to the United States. The Beginnings of Foreign Contact with Truk is the sub ject of an article of Micronesian interest by Francis X. Hezel.

The journal is obtained from the Australian National University, Can berra at a subscription rate of $A4.75 per copy.

An interesting pictorial map of the Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands is available for 25c from the Publi cations and Printing Division of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Saipan, Mariana Islands, 96950.

The map has numerous notes and sketches on the natural history of the atoll environment with graphic illus trations on atoll formation and geo logy.