the periodicals

Around and about the periodicals

In quality and interest the standard is maintained in the latest issues of three Pacific

periodicals.

The Journal of Pacific History (Australian National University, PO Box 4, Canberra ACT 2600) is an annual, but from this year it will appear twice yearly, March and Sep tember. Volume 10, in March, will mark 10 years of publication. The latest. Volume 9 for 1974, carries articles re-assessing Sir Arthur Gordon of Fiji; it looks at the Mela nesian Mission in the Solomon Islands; and cargoism and politics in Bougainville between 1962 and 1972; and gives us a case study of the use of firearms during indigenous war fare in the Islands in the days of early contact.

William Tagupa writes on some aspects of modern politics and per sonalities in French Polynesia, and in the manuscripts section, John Dunmore records in French with an English synopsis a French account of Port Praslin, in the Solomons, in 1769. The port was formed by off shore islands off the north west tip of Santa Ysabel. Colin Allan, for merly with the Western Pacific High Commission, gives us some March ing Rule stories. These are merely selections from the Pacific goodies to be found in this readable and in valuable journal.

Pacific Perspective is published twice yearly by the South Pacific Social Sciences Association (PO Box 5083, Suva) whose chairman is Pro fessor Ron Crocombe. Editor of Pacific Perspective is Sione K. Tu pouniua. Volume 2 No. 2 has articles, among others discussing cultural obstacles to Fijian commercial enter prise; traditional values in health planning (by Dr Reuben Taureka of PNG), and an especially interesting piece by Francis Bugotu on colonisa tion in the Solomons. The papers were among those read at a seminar in Suva in December, 1973.

Bugotu said: “The challenge for us Pacific Islanders is not to stand wide-eyed on one side of the arena, blankly watching our interests being mani pulated and aspirations changed by foreigners, but to stand in the centre of the ring and be involved, with

one foot firmly on the ground. The task is to find a design for a future which serves our interests, and need not necessarily be patterned on Western lines, nor serve Western strategic, economic or political aims”.

Volume 9, No. 3 of the quarterly New Guinea; Australia, the Pacific and South-East Asia (a mouthful, so it is usually known as the New Guinea Quarterly) contains two long articles on the Cocos and Christmas Islands, and Australian Labor Party policy between 1941 and 1949 which eventually made the policy for post war Papua New Guinea. The Labor Party came to power in Australia in 1941, and this article especially dis cusses wartime Army influence in making the PNG policy.

The New Guinea Quarterly is the organ of the Council on New Guinea Affairs, and subscriptions go to Box 3408 GPO Sydney.

Meanwhile, Kovave, the twice yearly journal of Papua New Guinea literature illustrated by New Guinea artists (subscriptions from Jacaranda Press, 65 Park Road, Milton, Queens land) has produced an attractive special issue, Modern Images from Niugini, which includes colour plates of modern New Guinea art. This issue ($2.50), is produced by Georgina Beier, and describes lead ing artists and their art, and com ments on the PNG art scene —if it could be so called—with knowledge, insight and wit, and with no little scorn when she describes the medioc rity of PNG’s European “Sunday painters” and their annual art show, “where most of the work presented is atrocious, some is slick and com petent but all is lacking in origin ality”.

There is certainly originality and competence in the New Guinean work she selects for discussion in this special issue. • The Education Faculty of the University of Papua New Guinea has brought out a book on education and the highlands. Education and Rural Development in the Highlands of PNG, is edited by J. P. Powell and Michael Wilson and is a collection of papers by education staff and university students. Information in the book has been gathered from village communities in the Eastern, Western and Southern Highlands Districts. It covers expectations of the school system and the extent to which these have been met, views on the primary ‘push out’ problem, the desire for adult education and opinions on ways in which rural de velopment may be fostered. Attention